Summary
Rumors have begun to surface about one ofXbox’s many 2025-stamped first-party games getting delayed into 2026.Xboxhad a very solid 2024 of first-party titles, led by Ninja Theory’s long-awaitedSenua’s Saga: Hellblade 2and MachineGames’Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The latter, while having missed the 2024 Game Awards cutoff, received very high praise from critics and gamers alike, becoming one of 2024’s best games.
Xbox’s first-party 2025 picture began forming during its impressive Summer Game Fest showcase in June. The show gave 2025 release windows to Playground Games’Fablereboot, Compulsion Games’South of Midnight, and Bethesda’s freshly revealedDoom: The Dark Ages. Also unveiled at the show wasGears of War: E-Day, which, along with inXile’sClockwork Revolution,has entered the 2025 rumor mill as well. In an unexpected turn,Obsidian Entertainment’sThe Outer Worldssequel, which was first announced in 2021, has just recently been given a 2025 release window when it appeared with a new trailer at The Game Awards 2024.
InGiant Bomb’s 2024 Game Awards livestream, industry insider Jeff Grubb mentioned that one of Xbox’s many 2025 games has been delayed to 2026. While Grubb doesn’t know exactly which title, he went on to speculate about it beingThe Initiative’sPerfect Darkreboot, which also showed up at Xbox’s June showcase with its gameplay reveal. However, it didn’t have any sort of release window attached and, judging by reports of the project’s rocky development over the past few years, seems more like a 2026 or 2027 release; it doesn’t seem like Xbox ever considered releasing it in 2025 in the first place.
Jeff Grubb Says Big 2025 Xbox Game Has Been Pushed to 2026
During the stream, Jeff Grubb also mentioned thatThe Outer Worlds 2was moved up to 2025 to take the place of the game that slipped into 2026. As for which big Xbox game this could possibly be,it’s likely not Obsidian’sAvowed, which has already seen a delay and is ready to go in February.South of Midnightalso seems unlikely considering its big gameplay blowout it released a few weeks ago.
BetweenDoom: The Dark AgesandFable,the latter seems more likely to have been pushed to 2026, as it was already rumored for a late 2025 release. While someFablegameplay snippets have been showcased,The Dark Ages' action-packed gameplay reveal indicated that it’s likely closer to release than Playground’s fantasy RPG reboot.Gears of War: E-DayandClockwork Revolutionalso fit the description if they indeed were given internal 2025 windows.
It will be very interesting to seewhether Xbox decides to do another Developer Directin late January as it’s done the past two years. If so, Xbox may forego showingAvowedagain in favor of highlighting its other first-party 2025 games, likeSouth of MidnightandDoom: The Dark Ages. Depending on what shows up at the event, Xbox fans may be able to glean which big Xbox title could have been hit with a 2026 delay.
Xbox Series X
Microsoft’s ninth-generation console, the Xbox Series X is a powerful machine that can support 4K resolution and 60 fps, depending on the game. Released alongside the Xbox Series S, the Series X has a Custom AMD Zen 2 CPU, a Custom RDNA 2 GPU, and 16 GB of RAM.
