In the first big game showcase of 2025, Microsoft k??icked things off with the Xbox Developer's Direct Show case highlighting four AAA titles all set to release this year.? Let's take a look at all four games that were part of the January 2025 Xbox Developer Direct showcase.

Ninja Gaiden 4

Xbox kicked things off with the reveal of the return of Raiden in Ninja Gaiden 4, being developed in coordination by Team Ninja and PlatinumGames. If it feels like it's been a while since we've ha??d a Ninja Gaiden gam?e, well, you're right. A decade, to be exact.

Ninja Gaiden 4 takes place after the events of Ninja Gaiden 3 in an abandoned Tokyo that has been taken over by demons. Players will step into the role of the lo?ngtime series' main character master ninja Ryu Hayabusa as well as a new protagonist, Yakumo.

Team Ninja also revealed Ninja Gaiden 2 Black, an upgraded remaster of the Xbox 360 title Ninja Gaiden 2 rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5. Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is out now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, and Ninja Gaiden 4 will be released on the same platforms in Fall 2025 as well as be available on on ?Day One on Game Pass.

South of Midnight

Next up, Compulsion Games showe?d off more of the story from the upcoming action-adventure title South of Midnight from the creators of We Happy Few. A hurricane rips through the town of Prospero, whisking away the main character Hazel, and pulling her into a Southern Gothic world where reality and fantasy connect and ancient folklore creatures emerge.

We also got a release date for South of Midnight, and the third-person adventure title is no?w set to release on April?? 8, 202,5 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Day One on Game Pass.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

This debut title from developer Sandfall Interactive looks great. The third game highlighted in the showcase was the upcoming RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, featuring turn-based combat mixed with real-time mechanics. Players face off against the Paintress in a Belle Epoque-inspired fantasy world hosting an expansive world, and lots of secrets and side quests. Revealed in the showcase, players will be able to set up and customize their?? own camp where they can reinforce weapons, bond with Expedition teammates, and plan their next course of action.

We also got the release date for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 which will release on April 24, 2025, on PC, Pla??yStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. It too, will also be available on Day One on Game Pass.

Doom: The Dark Ages

Microsoft wrapped things up with Doom: The Dark Ages, showing off its fast-paced brutal gameplay with tons of bone-shattering and decapitating weapons. The showcase highlighted the open-world aspects of the medieval-themed fight against the forces of Hell as well as a handful of the arsenal of w?eapons players can wreak havoc with. We also got a look at two new badass tools we can use in the fight against Hell: a flying mecha dragon and a colossal Atlas? mech.

Doom: The Dark Ages is set t??o release on May 15, 2025, on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. It will also be available on Day One on Game Pass.

The post Everything shown at today’s Xbox Developer Direct showcase appeared first on Destructoid.

The Xbox Developer Direct event is a chance for Microsoft to showcase some of its first-party games. Last year, we got to see the likes of Avowed, Hellblade 2, and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Given that Microsoft owns some of th??e biggest franchises in gaming, there's usually a little bit of hype around it. This year is unlikely to be an ??exception, with the 2025 showcase kicking off in just a few hours (at the time of writing). It's scheduled to go ahead at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK.

If you want to check out Xbox Developer Direct, there are plenty of ways you can do this. For example, if you're on YouTube, you can go to either the official Xbox or Bethesda channels. If Twitch is more your style, again, you can either favor Xbox or Bethesda. There's also the ASL version of the Xbox Twitch channel as well.

Don't fancy either of those websites, well, the event is also being streamed over on Facebook, as well as on Steam. It's even coming to the Bilibili platform, ?if you're watching from China. Basically, you won't be stuck for places to check it out.

What can we expect from Xbox Developer Direct 2025?

As mentioned above, Developer_Direct (as it's typically stylized) promises to show off games that are coming up. According to a recent post on Xbox Wire, we'll be getting insights into Compulsion's third-person action game South of Midnight and Sandfall Interactive's RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.

However, I'd wager the one that many will be looking forward to the most is Doom: The Dark Ages, the third entry in the reboot of id Software's legendary franchise. A release date for the new Doom game has already been leaked ahead of the showcase, with it possibly coming in May. But we'll know in d??ue time how accurate this info??rmation was.

Additionally, Xbox is planning to reveal details about a mysterious fourth game. One can only speculate on what this will be. I'd wager?? you have your own theories. Again, all in good time.

Xbox Developer Direct will be airing in English. However, the event will support live caption?s for other languages, including:

Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, French, Canadian French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Po??rtuguese, Russi??an, Castilian Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese

Do note that some of the ?languages listed above may not be available at the time of the broadcast going live. However, Xbox says it will add them to YouTube "at the earliest opportunity."

The post Xbox Developer Direct 2025: where t?o watch and what? to expect appeared first on Destructoid.

Out of all the announcements from the latest Xbox Games Showcase, the one that most piqued my curiosity was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the debut title from Sandfall Interactive. It being a new turn-based RPG was enough to catch my interest, and additional details about its reactive combat have confirmed you not only time button presses to execute your attacks, but also to dodge and parry enemy attacks. This singular detail has only made me more excited for the game since it's very reminiscent of one of my favourite RPG series, Mario & Luigi.

In a June 10 Xbox Wire blog post, Sandfall explained how its team are fans of not only turn-based RPGs, but action games and Souls-likes. As such, they "wanted to create something unique that combines the depth of a turn-based game with the thrill ?of executing a dodge or a perfect parry." So, by memorising an enemy's patterns, you can dodge, parry, or jump over their attacks in order to land a counter and deal further damage.

While Sandfall may have drawn inspiration from games like Dark Souls, this take on turn-based combat is practically identical to the way fights play out in the Mario & Luigi games. Other Mario RPGs, like Paper Mario and Super Mario RPG, had timed button presses (or action commands) for performing attacks and guarding as well, but Mario & Luigi allowed the broth?ers to use their jumping and hammer skills for both dodging and counterattacking, meaning skilled players could make it through fights unscathed.

It's a little thing, but it's one of the reasons why I enjoyed the combat in the Mario & Luigi games, and why it's sad that the series has gone dormant. After 2015's Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam, developer Alpha Dream worked on two remakes of previous entries that unfortunately didn't sell particularly well, with sales for the Bowser's Inside Story remake reportedly being so poor that, accord?ing to former Game Informer editor Imran Khan, Nintendo canned other 3DS projects as a result. Less than a year after that game's release, Alpha Dream filed for bankruptcy and shut down in October 2019, and there's no sign of the Mario & Luigi series continuing.

The recent Paper Mario and Super Mario RPG remakes give me hope that Mario & Luigi will make a return. If not, Expedition 33 looks like it could be the perfect substitute, though it's obviously offering a different style and tone to the Italian plumber's more comedic adventures. The blog post also mentions a free-aim system that lets you target specific weak points, "offering you a substantial advantage against the hardest foes or flying enemies." Combined with how each party member has a unique playstyle and mechanic, along with customisable skill trees, it sounds like there'll be a lot of complexities to Expedition 33's combat compared to the more simple battles of Mario & Luigi.

Set in a world where a being called the Paintress is killing people of a certain age every year by painting a number on her Monolith, Expedition 33 sees the titular team embark on a mission to destroy the Paintress before they succumb to her curse. It launc??hes in 2025 for Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC??.

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