Since 2023 there has been a yearly show for Xbox known as the Xbox developer direct! In this direct, 4 to 5 studios  show off games and DLCs. Many of these Games we have seen and some would be world premieres and never seen before. In the case of the developer direct we had 4 studios; these being Koei Tecmo, Compulsion games, Sandfall Interactive and ID Software which showed off 5 games in the direct! We will be going over all 5 games releasing all this year and it’s worth noting that all these games except for Compulsion Games’s South of Midnight will all be heading to PS5 as well as the fact that all 5 of these games will all be coming to Gamepass. Without further ado, let’s begin with Koei Tecmo’s world premieres and the beginning of their year of the Ninja.

Koei Tecmo/Team Ninja/Platinum games: Ninja Gaiden 4 and Ninja Gaiden 2: Black

This year marks the year of the Ninja for Koei Tecmo, which is celebrating 30 years of Team Ninja who is a division of Koei Tecmo and has created all Ninja Gaiden games from 2004 to now. There will be 3 games coming out for this year! Ninja Gaiden Ragebound a 2D pixel art action platformer releasing in Summer 2025 and our two games for the developer direct, with the first one out now with Ninja Gaiden 2: Black, a remaster of the 2008 Xbox 360 exclusive Ninja Gaiden 2, graphically remade using Unreal Engine 5. The game is officially out now on all next generation consoles and PC along with gamepass. The second game however is a new game based on the 3D Ninja Gaiden games with Ninja Gaiden 4 a brand new next generation action game created by the masters of action games: Platinum games (creators behind the Bayonetta/Metal Gear Rising and NieR Automata) who will co-develop with Team Ninja. The game will be in a futuristic “rain drenched” Tokyo with the game featuring a new protagonist and the game will come out in fall 2025 on all next generation consoles and PC along with Day one on game pass. (Fun fact: because the game was published by Xbox the CEO of Microsoft gaming Phill Spencer actually brought up the idea of Ninja Gaiden 4 and brought up Platinum games as a Co-Developer.)

Compulsion games: South of Midnight

While only being a small studio that has made only 2 games, Compulsion games was bought out by Microsoft in 2018 and is now a part of Xbox Game Studios with their next project being one of their biggest yet. South of Midnight is going to be a 3rd person action adventure game set in a fictionalized American Deep South. The game will be using a very stop motion like style with the developers stating that the deeper you get the weirder the visuals and the game will get using the Unreal engine 5. Our main character Hazel will use mystical threads to combat enemies of the game along with using these threads for puzzles in the game. This is the only game not slated to come to PS5 and will be an Xbox series console exclusive, although the game is heading to Gamepass day one and PC on April 8th 2025.

Sandfall Interactive: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 

Sandfall’s first game will be one of the “big” games of 2025 being the turn-based RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or just Expedition 33. This game unlike other turn based RPGs will be a real time combat RPG which will be an evolution of more classic turn based RPG even though the game will be inspired by Classic RPGs like those made by Square Enix. This game will be inspired by Belle Epoque France with Dark fantasy as its genre. With the game being narratively focused, the story of the game will have a party of 6 going on an expedition as they embark upon a desperate quest to break the Paintress’ cycle of death. This game will have stunning visuals with Unreal engine 5 (Noticing a pattern here?) and will be released on next generation consoles/PC and is heading to Gamepass day one on April 25th 2025 (same month as South of Midnight).

id Software: DOOM: The Dark Ages 

Last year at the Xbox showcase we saw the reveal of DOOM: The Dark Ages, a brand new Doom game which will be a prequel to the Doom 2016 reboot and Doom Eternal. This upcoming FPS will feature our main character Doom Guy having a chainsaw shield, a mech that he can use and a dragon that can fly across the vast world. Id Software claims that this is the biggest game yet with levels that feel like open world games and will also feature great visuals made by the id tech engine and not by the Unreal engine. Also id has stated that unlike Doom 2016 and Eternal, the dark ages won’t have multiplayer as it will be fully single player along with the fact that this might be the best beginner friendly Doom game with difficulty sliders which some have commented to be a “Game journalist” mode. The game will be released on May 15th 2025 on generation consoles/PC and is heading to Gamepass day one. Also now is a good time to mention that Microsoft is not only interested in the brand new Nintendo Switch 2 but id Software is a supporter of the original switch (porting over eternal, 2016 and the recent Wolfenstein games) not to mention there are rumors of dark ages coming Switch 2 so don’t be surprised if it, along with other Microsoft games come to Switch 2.