To kick off 2025, Microsoft is holding another Xbox Developer_Direct showcase to highlight four games making their way to Xbox Game Pass throughout 2025. We’ll finally get a new look at games like Doom: The Dark Ages and South of Midnight, and a surprise reveal from the show is also bound to create excitement. It’s a show that Game Pass subscribers across any platform will want to tune into. To help with that, I’ve rounded up all the pertinent information surrounding the showcase, including how to watch it and what you should expect.
The third annual Xbox Developer_Direct will take place at 10 a.m. PT on January 23, so you’ll need to set aside some time midday on Thursday if you want to watch it live. Microsoft has not said how long the show will last, but Developer_Directs typically last 45 to 50 minutes, with lengthy segments dedicated to each title.
As is the case with most of its first-party showcases, you can expect the latest Developer_Direct to live-streamed across official Xbox and Bethesda channels on YouTube and Twitch. We’ll embed the YouTube limk for the Developer_Direct into this article as soon as it’s available so you can watch the whole show right from this webpage.
Xbox Developer_Directs aren’t like Nintendo Directs because they give us extended looks at a smaller number of games rather than rapid-fire looks at several. Microsoft confirmed that four games will be featured in this year’s Developer_Direct, and we know three of them: South of Midnight, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Doom: The Dark Ages.
South of Midnight is a new action-adventure game inspired by the culture and mythology of the American Deep South. It’s the first game We Happy Few and Contrast developer Compulsion Games has released since it was acquired by Microsoft in 2018. Meanwhile, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is an stylish turn-based RPG from a new independent European studio called Sandfall Interactive.
Doom: The Dark Ages needs little introduction. The medieval-themed continuation of id Software’s trailblazing first-person shooter series will offer its first in-depth look since it debuted at the Xbox Games Showcase last June.
Finally, an unannounced game is also being teased for the event. We’ll have to wait and see what that is, but at least we’ll get a deep dive into the game as soon as it’s revealed.
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.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.