The Xbox Series X and Series S have now been out for over four years, bringing better resolution, higher frame rates, and ray tracing to gamers around the world. And the best upcoming video games continue to show off all those bells and whistles in fun, new experiences.
If you’re eager to find out what Microsoft has in store for the years ahead, we’ve rounded up every game confirmed so far, including new offerings, franchise installments, and ports of existing titles. We’re looking beyond the first-party projects here to encompass all the great games coming to this powerful piece of gaming hardware. Maybe some of them will end up being among the best games on Xbox Series X.
Of course, there are also plenty of upcoming PS5 games, upcoming PC games, and upcoming Switch 2 games that you should put on your wishlists as well.
Bungie is looking to reaffirm its mastery in sci-fi shooters (see Destiny 2 and Halo) by giving a nostalgic nod to the ’90s with the revamped classic Marathon. The PvP-focused extraction shooter unfolds on the enigmatic Tau Ceti IV, where players become cybernetic mercenaries navigating the remnants of a lost colony. Solo or in crews of three, they hunt for alien artifacts, loot, and gear.
These games are confirmed to be coming to Xbox at some point soon. Some have been given vague 2025 release plans, while we’re just speculating on others. We have hope for them all, though.
Ark II is going to give fans of the survival series exactly what they want — more dinosaurs. First announced in 2020, trailers starring Vin Diesel (yes, you read that correctly) describe a war in the past that led to the state of the world being a mashup of prehistoric animals and futuristic technologies. We think it’s safe to assume that gameplay will be very similar to the first game — you’ll explore with friends, raise dinosaurs, hunt dinosaurs, be hunted by dinosaurs, and try to build a safe settlement in a harsh world. This game has been pushed back to late 2024, but we could see it slipping into 2025.
All we know about the games listed below is that they’re in development. Most of them are probably a few years away from launch.
Announced during the XO19 event by Microsoft, Everwild is the new title from Rare Studios. Everwild is an adventure game with a similar art style to that of Rare’s Sea of Thieves. There has not been a confirmed release date or much information about the gameplay. However, check out the trailer for Everwild to get a glimpse of what the game will look like graphically.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Imagine tapping a Zelda icon on your iPhone and jumping straight into Hyrule. A new open-source project called nxnative makes that possible by repackaging Switch games you’ve bought into apps for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, with no emulator in the middle.
Why does this run so well on Apple devices?
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.