Xbox Game Studios News Articles
Friday28th Nov 2025
Rumour Two Xbox First-Party Titles Get Leaked 2026 Release Windows
Big pinch of salt with these, folks
With next year (and beyond) on Xbox looking pretty darn stacked, Microsoft could be having some trouble knowing where exactly to place its first-party games in its 2026 release calendar. We know of four big titles landing next year at the moment - and some fresh rumours today are giving us a narrower window for...
News Xbox Game Studios Has Loads Of Titles Heavily Discounted In Its Steam Black Friday Sale
Lots of XGS, Bethesda & Activision offers!
Here at Pure Xbox we've done plenty of coverage on Microsoft's Black Friday offers already - from a general roundup of the big Xbox digital sale to discounts on Game Pass and so on. If you're playing over on PC a lot more these days though — especially in the wake of
Friday14th Nov 2025
News Xbox Game Studios & Activision Are Finally Teaming Up With 'Minecraft Blast'
It's a mobile game, though...
Ever since Xbox started acquiring these big developers and publishers, we've probably all thought about the synergy we might possibly see from Microsoft's gaming division, but that hasn't really happened just yet. At large, these developers and publishers within Xbox seem pretty separate - but finally, we're at least...
Friday24th Oct 2025
News Phil Spencer Addresses AI & Developer Creativity At Xbox Game Studios
"I really leave it up to the teams..."
In a new panel at the Paley International Council Summit, Phil Spencer sat down with Double Fine Studio Head Tim Schafer to discuss a whole host of gaming-related topics - and the Xbox boss had some interesting things to say about AI use and developer creativity over at Microsoft's gaming division. Despite the...
Thursday25th Sep 2025
News Here's A Look At The Updated Xbox Game Studios Roadmap From September 2025
After some big announcements from Microsoft
Following what's been a busy few months for Xbox in a multitude of positive and negative ways, super-fan Klobrille has shared another updated version of their long-running Xbox Game Studios roadmap - with some recent additions and unfortunate casualties now accounted for on the list. As we've covered...
Wednesday30th Jul 2025
News PlayStation's Q2 2025 Sales Charts Are In, And Xbox Is Dominating The List (US)
Six of the top 10 are Xbox games
Much has been said about Microsoft's pivot to put Xbox games on PS5 in recent months, but the numbers don't lie, and the team continues to shift copies on the Sony platform. This week, Circana has put out fresh data that gathers up the top 10 best-selling games on PlayStation (physical and digital) for Q2 2025 - and...
Wednesday23rd Jul 2025
News Xbox's Next First-Party Title Gets 'Story Trailer' Ahead Of Game Pass Release This Month
Staying grounded
It's been a busy year so far for Xbox first-party, but despite us being in the slower summer months here, the team isn't stopping there. Nope, the productive folks over at Obsidian are about to drop another big release this month in the form of Grounded 2 - with the game's early access story trailer now live. You can check out this...
Thursday26th Jun 2025
News Imminent Xbox Layoffs Could Include Entire Studios, Warns Industry Veteran
"Good luck to all involved. Brutal."
Back on Tuesday, it was reported that Microsoft could be making major layoffs throughout the Xbox division at some point next week, and industry veteran George Broussard has now chimed in with what he knows about the situation. Broussard, who worked on the likes of Duke Nukem, Max Payne and Prey back in the day,...
Tuesday18th Mar 2025
News Two First-Party Games Now Confirmed For Xbox Series X|S In April 2025
A stacked schedule
For a few months now, Team Xbox has had Compulsion's South of Midnight lined up as its major first-party release for April 2025 - but Microsoft has now added a second game into the mix. After launching in Steam Early Access last year,
Friday14th Mar 2025
News Avowed's New Update Now Live For Xbox, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
Community requested features, quest fixes, and more
Avowed's developer Obsidian Entertainment has been patching the game non-stop since its arrival and the latest build (Patch 1.3) has now been released on Xbox Series X|S and PC. This latest update addresses key areas including community-requested features, crashes and major issues, quests and...
Wednesday5th Mar 2025
News First Look At THPS 3+4 'Full Size' Collector's Edition Board, Pre-Orders Now Live
Don't miss it!
After ongoing rumours, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 is now official and as previously highlighted, there'll be plenty of ways to purchase it. Apart from the standard physical release and Deluxe Edition, there's also the Collector's Edition. Now, if you remember the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2 remaster, you might recall how the...
Wednesday26th Feb 2025
News Xbox Says It's Got A 'Bunch Of Stuff' It Hasn't Even Announced Yet
The Fable delay is no biggie
Xbox has officially delayed the next chapter of Fable, and although this game has been pushed back to next year, Microsoft's gaming division has obviously still got plenty of other unannounced projects it's working on behind closed doors. In the recent 'Xbox Game Studios Update', the division's head Craig Duncan issued...
Saturday1st Feb 2025
News Xbox's Phil Spencer Checks On Dev 'Progress' Of Gears Of War: E-Day
We're ready when you are
Gears of War: E-Day is already one of the most anticipated titles on the way to the Xbox in the future and it seems Microsoft's Gaming CEO Phil Spencer has recently checked in with developer The Coalition to get a status update. In a post on social media to kick off the month of February, Spencer revealed how he had spent...
Saturday11th Jan 2025
Rumour Xbox Has Even 'More' Games Planned For PS5, It's Claimed
"Microsoft isn't stopping"
Yesterday, new rumours surfaced about Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Flight Simulator going multiplatform in 2025. Now, in another update, Windows Central's Jez Corden has backed up these claims as "most likely true" and also suggested Microsoft won't be stopping there - with Hellblade 2, Age of Mythology, and...
Tuesday3rd Dec 2024
News Microsoft Adds Another Free Dynamic Background On Xbox Series X|S
Celebrating the return of Indiana Jones
It's a massive month on the Xbox front with the arrival of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Series X|S, PC and "day one" on Microsoft's Game Pass subscription service. To celebrate this special occasion, Xbox has added a brand-new dynamic background on Xbox Series X|S. It's available to all users and can...
Thursday28th Nov 2024
News Xbox Exec Talks 'Honouring Our Craft' As They're Named In Variety's Gaming Leaders List
Matt Booty was recently promoted at Xbox
American magazine Variety has highlighted ten '2024 Gaming Entertainment Leaders' in the past week or so, and Xbox executive Matt Booty has made the list this time around. Booty was recently promoted within Microsoft's new gaming leadership structure - the longtime exec is now President of Game Content and...
Wednesday27th Nov 2024
News Xbox Fans Are Wondering What Happened To Series X|S Exclusive 'Contraband'
It was revealed over 3 years ago!
Remember Contraband, the open world co-op game announced by Xbox Game Studios back in 2021? Well, we've seen or heard very little on the Avalanche Studios game since then - and Xbox fans are starting to wonder what the heck is going on with it. Over on the platform's
Saturday16th Nov 2024
News Xbox Could Have A Major 'Open-World Shooter' In The Pipeline, But It's Still Early Days
The team at Blizzard is now recruiting
Xbox's development teams already deliver some of the best first-person shooters on the market, and now, it seems the talent at Blizzard could be looking to adapt another blockbuster IP to this genre. Following recent rumours about a supposed StarCraft shooter being in development, Blizzard is now recruiting...
Friday15th Nov 2024
News Surprise! Xbox's Avowed Has Been Confirmed For Another Platform
Even Blizzard's digital service "is an Xbox"
Well, here's a bit of a surprise. Xbox has today revealed it's bringing Obsidian Entertainment's upcoming fantasy RPG Avowed to not only Xbox Series X|S, Windows, and Steam platforms, but also Blizzard's Battle.net launcher on PC. This was confirmed in an announcement today on Xbox Wire. While we've seen...
Friday25th Oct 2024
News Microsoft Boasts About Owning '20 Franchises That Have Generated Over $1 Billion'
Including ActiBlizz and Bethesda games of course
Microsoft's Satya Nadella has certainly been in the headlines today and not always in the most positive light, but one section of the CEO's recent annual company update at least talks about some of Xbox's more positive achievements in recent tim
Thursday24th Oct 2024
News Xbox Boss Namedrops Marvel's Blade & Everwild Following Recent Studio Visits
Phil has been busy!
As of late, the Xbox exec team have been a bit quieter on social media, especially in the wake of Microsoft's recent studio closures and developer layoffs. However, Phil Spencer has been breaking that trend recently with a return to the Threads platform - and the boss has delivered some interesting Xbox Game Studios updates over...
Thursday3rd Oct 2024
News Xbox Co-Founder Joins Amazon, Says He'll Be Working On 'New Ideas'
He's now VP of devices and services
One of the original Xbox co-founders, J Allard, has joined Amazon as the company's vice president of devices and services. He told The Verge it's "too early" to say what's on the way, but he'll be working on "new ideas" at the tech giant. Interestingly, Allard will supposedly report to the former Windows and...
Friday27th Sep 2024
Rumour Blizzard Is Supposedly Working On A New StarCraft Shooter
Hell, it's about time
Until yesterday, it didn't seem like Blizzard's legendary StarCraft series would be making a comeback any time soon, and now, both titles are on their way to PC Game Pass. If this wasn't already enough for one week, there are also new rumours about a supposed "StarCraft shooter" being in development. During a chat with IGN...
Tuesday25th Jun 2024
News Xbox's Avowed Is Fully Playable In Third-Person, Confirms Obsidian
One for you over-the-shoulder fans!
In the aftermath of the Xbox Games Showcase, Avowed developer Obsidian starting going a bit more in-depth about its upcoming fantasy RPG, including the ability to switch to a third-person perspective. At the time, details on this were a little vague, but now the team has confirmed that the game is fully playable...
Wednesday12th Jun 2024
News State Of Decay 3 Development Is Being Supported By Two Other Xbox Teams
Better with friends
Since its major acquisitions, Xbox has mentioned how studios within its ecosystem would be able to collaborate on projects and generally help each other out. We've already seen this before with some games in the past, and it seems the developer behind State of Decay 3 has also had some assistance crafting the next entry in its...
Sunday9th Jun 2024
News South Of Midnight Gets Gameplay Reveal, Coming To Xbox Game Pass In 2025
Another Xbox exclusive!
Remember South of Midnight from Compulsion Games? The bayou-inspired Xbox title got its big reveal last year - and now we have actual gameplay and a confirmed release window! Yep, the We Happy Few developer is bringing the game day one to Xbox
News State Of Decay 3 Is Back As Part Of 'A New Era' For Xbox's Undead Labs
Coming soon!
Gosh, it's been a while but State of Decay 3 is back! Yep, Xbox's open-world zombie sequel has re-emerged after almost four years of radio silence - and it's looking like development has come along nicely since. Up above, we've got a brand-new look at the game from developer Undead Labs, who themselves have undergone some major changes...
News Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 Launches This October On Xbox Game Pass
Just a few months to go!
We already know that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is launching day one on Xbox Game Pass, and now we have a launch date! Yep, the next Black Ops title arrives for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S on October 25th, 2024. Of course, this marks the first time ever that a
Monday13th May 2024
Rumour State Of Decay 3 Is 'Coming Along Very Nicely' Over At Xbox
In a good state
State of Decay 3 is one Xbox title that we've heard basically nothing about since its announcement back in 2020 — aside from news that Gears developer The Coalition is helping out on development — but a new rumour from Windows Central's Jez Corden suggests that the game is shaping up rather nicely over at Xbox. Talking on a...
Friday10th May 2024
News Xbox Reiterates Every First Party Title Is Coming To Game Pass 'Day One'
A recent report suggested Call of Duty could be excluded
Following a recent report claiming Xbox was considering not including new Call of Duty releases on Game Pass, it seems Microsoft's gaming division remains committed to "day one" releases. Xbox president Sarah Bond has mentioned at the Bloomberg Technology Summit this week how "day one"...
