Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass is finally delivering on its promise of a steady stream of new games, with 2025 shaping up to be a blockbuster year for the platform. The annual Xbox Developer Direct event showcased a slew of exciting new releases, including Ninja Gaiden 4, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and Doom: The Dark Ages, all of which will be available on Game Pass.

The event kicked off with a promise that all games shown would be available on Game Pass, and impressively, they would all be Xbox Play Anywhere titles, allowing players to buy once and play on Xbox consoles and PC. The lineup of new games is a significant boost to the platform, which has been criticized in the past for its lack of new releases.

Ninja Gaiden 4, published by Xbox Game Studios, is the latest entry in a long-running franchise that has seen significant success on Xbox in the past. The game's developer, Team Ninja, also debuted the remaster of Ninja Gaiden II, which will be available on Game Pass. South of Midnight, a game with a narrative that touches on Southern folklore, got a release date and a deeper dive into its gameplay and story. The game will be joined by Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a turn-based RPG developed by a team of former Ubisoft developers, which features voice acting talent and turn-based combat similar to Persona 5.

The event concluded with a deeper dive into id Software's Doom: The Dark Ages, which features a focus on melee combat and new UI sliders that allow players to adjust game speed or parry timing. The game looks set to offer unique gameplay that sets it apart from previous entries in the Doom franchise.

Three out of the four games featured in the Developer Direct are also coming to PS5, with South of Midnight being the exception. Microsoft highlighted its own ecosystem advantage, debuting these cross-platform games, which will launch day one on Game Pass, Xbox Play Anywhere, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. This makes Xbox the most flexible way to buy these games or subscribe to play them, with cross-saves, cross-progression, and the ability to play them on PC, Xbox consoles, or stream them to many other devices.

The new games now make for a packed series of Xbox Game Pass releases in the coming months. Obsidian's Avowed is arriving on February 18th, just weeks after Sniper Elite: Resistance, Eternal Strands, and Citizen Sleeper 2 appear on day one in Game Pass. The Alters is also supposed to debut on Game Pass in early 2025. This means there won't be a month between now and June when subscribers don't have something to look forward to, and that's just the first half of the year.

Microsoft's Xbox summer showcase will then set the stage for the rest of the year and beyond. Ninja Gaiden 4 is coming in the fall, but Microsoft has also previously announced that The Outer Worlds 2 and Fable are 2025 releases. There could be some more surprises on the way, too, with rumors pointing towards a remaster of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

In other Microsoft news, the company's venture fund head, Chris Young, has resigned from his role, with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella saying that the pair had been discussing Young's entrepreneurial interests and his "next play" over the past year. Young will stay at Microsoft until the end of March to help transition the business development and M12 teams over to Microsoft's financial organization.

Additionally, Microsoft has released its Steam-like browser overlay on Windows 11, which is now available to the public after months of beta testing. The company is also testing support for massive amounts of external storage on Xbox, and has opened testing for its Windows AI search interface.

Microsoft has also made changes to its sign-in process, with users set to stay signed in to their account automatically unless they sign out or use a private browsing session starting in February. The company is also closing its flagship retail store in London next month, which originally opened just months before the covid-19 pandemic began.