Popular Games by Microsoft
Reviews of Microsoft Games
Review Age Of Mythology: Retold (Xbox) - Microsoft's Godly RTS Classic Revitalised
Go beyond history
Age of Mythology might not be a major numbered entry, but it's still played a significant role in the Age timeline – transitioning the series from 2D to 3D following the success of Ensemble's real-time strategy king, Age of Empires II. Mythology wasn’t just there to fill the void when it landed on PC in 2002 and is still...
Review Sea Of Thieves - In Truly Ship-Shape Condition Two Years After Launch
It's a pirate's life for me
When Sea of Thieves initially set sail in 2018, it was met with somewhat mixed reviews. Rare's pirate playground is undoubtedly a masterful creation; a vast, dynamic, hyper-stylised sea world dotted with mysterious islands and skeleton forts in which players are set free to create their own grand adventures. However, it...
Review Forza Horizon 4 - The Best Racing Experience On Xbox One
Fuel Britannia
Offshoots aren’t meant to surpass their source material. They’re meant to be unusual curios that take an existing concept in twist it in ways the mainline series never could. When the original Forza Horizon casually rolled up onto the scene in 2012, no one really expected it to attract the fan base that it did, but eight years on...
Review Forza Horizon 2: Storm Island (Xbox One)
Making it rain.
When crafting a DLC package of any significant weight for a game that has gone down really well with gamers and critics alike, developers have to be careful. What they add can’t interfere with the mix that they already had, as they really don’t want to be messing with a successful formula. Playground Games found a way to ensure...
Review D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die (Xbox One)
Look for D
Remember Deadly Premonition? It’s one of the most divisive games ever to be released upon the world. Poor production values, bizarreness to the extreme, and campy…well, everything else, meant it was one of those wonderfully weird games that either clicked with you, or it didn't at all. Now, four years after the release of Deadly...
Review Kinect Sports Rivals (Xbox One)
Do or die.
To say that Kinect Sports Rivals is a high-profile title for Xbox One would be something of an understatement. Being the only game (barring the violently bad Fighter Within, which barely passes as a game) available that’s been designed for the much-maligned Kinect device that’s included with every console, people were looking to...
Latest Microsoft News
YesterdayThu, 4th Dec 2025
News Free Play Days: Try These Xbox Games For Free (December 4-7)
New free trials now live on Xbox!
Xbox Free Play Days is here for the next few days! We've got six games playable as part of the program this week - with one of those in Destiny 2 bringing loads of premium expansions to the program as well. Here's your full Free Play Days rundown this week: Astria Ascending Bassmaster Fishing Descenders Destiny 2...
News Three Games Are Available Today Across Various Tiers Of Xbox Game Pass (December 4)
Including a brand-new day one launch!
Welcome to your latest Xbox Game Pass roundup! Today, we've got three games coming to the service; one that's brand-new to Ultimate subscribers and two that are moving over to the Premium tier. So, we'll gather up these new XGP additions for December 4th down below: 33 Immortals (Console, PC, Cloud) - XGP...
Wednesday3rd Dec 2025
News Two Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass Premium (December 3)
Two more titles for Premium subscribers!
Welcome to your latest Xbox Game Pass roundup! Today's update focuses on Xbox Game Pass Premium, with two titles moving over to Microsoft's mid-tier service today (December 3). Here's a summary of your two new additions to Xbox Game Pass Premium: Monster Train 2 (Series X|S, PC, Cloud): "Monster Train...
Tuesday2nd Dec 2025
News Xbox Teases 2026 Game Pass Lineup As It Delivers The Service's Final Update Of 2025
Game Pass is done with updates this year
Earlier today, Microsoft dropped its December Xbox Game Pass roundup - with 14 games coming to multiple tiers of the service in the next few weeks. The update stops at December 11th with the addition of Bratz: Rhythm & Style, and that's seemingly going to be our final XGP update for 2025 as the team begins to...
News These 14 Games Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass (December 2-11)
Your latest roundup of new titles
Microsoft has today revealed the next roundup of titles coming to Xbox Game Pass, with a batch of new additions arriving here in the first half of December 2025. We've got the day one launch of Routine to look forward to later this week, alongside Mortal Kombat 1 and more arriving later on in December. And don't...
Guide Xbox Game Pass Essential: Full List Of Games (December 2025 Update)
Here's everything you can play on Game Pass Essential
Back in 2023, Microsoft finally phased out Xbox Live Gold, replacing it with Xbox Game Pass Core as a new entry-level tier to its subscription service. Since then, it's been renamed to Xbox Game Pass Essential as of October 2025. Unlike Games with Gold, which
News New Microsoft Survey Suggests Five AI Features That Could Be Added To Xbox Game Pass
"Which of these would you be most likely to use?"
Whether it's a popular move or not, Microsoft is putting a big focus on the power of AI these days, and we've already seen Microsoft Copilot getting significantly integrated into the Xbox space over the past few months. It's very unlikely they're going to stop there, as suggested in a new Microsoft...
Monday1st Dec 2025
News Marvel Cosmic Invasion Impresses Critics As Arcade Beat-'Em-Up Lands On Xbox Game Pass
Out now on the service!
Marvel Cosmic Invasion is kicking off December on Xbox Game Pass in a big way - and the new Marvel brawler is out now, which means early reviews are starting to trickle in for the newly-released Xbox title. So, we're going to gather up some of those early reviews down below for you take a look at. Spoiler alert; Marvel...
News Halo: MCC Hit Its Highest Steam Player Count Since 2021 Over The Weekend
Masterworks
Halo: The Master Chief Collection has been a pretty steady Steam performer since it was introduced to the platform back in 2019; especially over the last three or four years where it regularly hits about 10k concurrent players at peak times. Over this past weekend though, the collection peaked a little higher than usual; hitting a Steam...
News Three Games Are Available This Week With Xbox Game Pass (December 1-4)
Starting today!
Welcome to your latest Xbox Game Pass roundup! So far, we've got three games coming to the library this week, including the recent surprise addition to the lineup in Marvel Cosmic Invasion - which arrives today! Here's a look at this week's Xbox Game Pass titles, all of which are new additions to the main Game Pass Ultimate library...
Saturday29th Nov 2025
Guide Xbox Game Pass: All Games Coming Soon In December 2025
All the confirmed reveals so far
Looking for a complete list of games coming to Xbox Game Pass in December 2025? It can be pretty difficult to keep track of all the comings and goings in the world of Xbox Game Pass every month, so we've put together this handy guide to provide an overview of what's coming to Xbox Game Pass in December 2025. Here's...
Friday28th Nov 2025
News Black Ops 7 Gets Its First Xbox Discount Two Weeks After Launch, But You'll Have To Be Quick
A Black Friday weekend offer from Microsoft
Xbox's big Black Friday sale has been live for more than a week now, featuring some massive AAA titles from a broad range of publishers and developers. One game that seemingly missed the Black Friday boat — mostly due to its very recent release date — was Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, but Microsoft has...
News Call Of Duty May Be Heading To Nintendo As Xbox Dev Seeks Talent With 'Switch Experience'
Maybe not until 2027, though
Remember when Microsoft committed to putting Call of Duty on Nintendo platforms amidst all of the ActiBlizz drama a few years back? Well, we've not really seen much activity in this space since, but after confirming that this move was still in the works back in the summer, one of the COD dev teams is now seemingly hiring...
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...
Thursday27th Nov 2025
News Xbox Says Cloud Gaming Is Up 45% With Game Pass & Console Users In 2025
"Players are streaming their games more than ever"
On the back of Xbox's November 2025 Update, Microsoft has given us some fresh figures on Xbox Cloud Gaming usage these days - with the service up across a bunch of different metrics year-on-year. First off, the team says that Cloud Gaming usage in general from
News Free Play Days: Try These Xbox Games For Free (November 27-30)
Including The First Berserker: Khazan!
Xbox Free Play Days has returned again for another week! There are some awesome titles in the mix over the next few days, including the hardcore action game The First Berserker: Khazan and the week-long free trial of Battlefield 6's multiplayer, and more might be revealed later today as well (we'll update this...
News Xbox Players Are Seeing A Strange Game-Breaking Bug In Gears Of War: Reloaded
The anti-cheat is having a bit of a wobble
Gears of War: Reloaded has some of its code rooted in the 2006 original, so at times, certain quirks are bound to crop up that cause issues for players - especially given that the first Gears of War was always a little buggy. However, one that's seemingly become more widespread recently is related to an...
Wednesday26th Nov 2025
Talking Point Did You Expect More From Xbox 360's 20th Anniversary?
Red ring of meh
Well, that's it, Xbox 360's 20th birthday has come and gone. As you probably saw, over here at Pure Xbox we didn't forget about the anniversary - with multiple features and
News Xbox Play Anywhere Grew Substantially In October, With 60+ Games Added Last Month
Including ARC Raiders, Keeper & more
As part of the Xbox November 2025 Update, Microsoft has highlighted more than 60 Xbox Play Anywhere titles added to the program last month, including major games such as ARC Raiders, Keeper, Little Nightmares 3 and more! Many of thes
Tuesday25th Nov 2025
News Xbox Cloud Gaming Expands To New Regions & Adds 'User-Selected Resolution' Feature
"We continue to expand Xbox Cloud Gaming..."
As part of today's November 2025 Update, Microsoft has announced new features for Xbox Cloud Gaming, including a new 'User-Selected Resolution' option that brings "enhanced stream quality for select titles". Yep, following on from the likes of
News Here's What's Included In The Xbox November 2025 Update
New cloud features, Copilot, full-screen experience & more!
The Xbox November 2025 update is now being highlighted by the folks over at Xbox Wire, and as usual with these updates in recent months, it's not really very console-focused - the updates encompass everything nowadays. With that in mind, we've got some cloud upgrades including the ability...
News Three Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (November 25)
Update: We've got a surprise third!
Welcome to your latest Xbox Game Pass roundup! Today, our final two November additions are here - including the underrated 2024 action-RPG Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden! Here's some more details on that one, alongside today's other XGP title: Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden (Console, PC, Cloud): "Hunt ghosts...
Monday24th Nov 2025
News Xbox Series X|S Could Go Up In Price Again Due To Potential RAM Shortages, It's Claimed
Is it all AI's fault?
Microsoft has implemented multiple price increases for the Xbox Series X and S over the past few years, and a new report suggests this might not be the end for current-gen Xbox price hikes. Coming from Moore's Law Is Dead on YouTube —
News Xbox Developers Are Reportedly 'Thrilled' To Release Their Games On PS5
It helps relieve sales pressure
Over the last 18 months or so, we've seen Microsoft pivot to releasing games on rival platforms - including PlayStation of course. While the reaction to this move has been mixed, shall we say, within the community, it sounds as though Xbox developers at large are pretty pleased with the decision. Talking with 404...
News Bethesda Wants To Do More Shadow Drops Following Hi-Fi RUSH & Oblivion Remastered
What next?
In recent years, Bethesda has employed the 'shadow drop' technique on multiple occasions; where the game(s) in question is simply released without any prior announcement or marketing. It's done this with 2023's Hi-Fi RUSH and 2025's Oblivion Remastered - and it sounds like the Xbox publisher wants to do it again. Speaking with
Saturday22nd Nov 2025
Poll Which Is Your Favourite Xbox 360 Launch Title?
The lineup is 20 years old today!
The Xbox 360 is 20 years old today, and we have some fantastic memories of Microsoft's sophomore system from way back in 2005. The console was incredible (RROD aside), the controller was an amazing evolution of the OG Xbox effort - and all-in-all, we we very happy with the experience back in the way. However, we...
News It's Official! The Xbox 360 Is 20 Years Old Today
We're celebrating the big day with a fond look back
20 years, eh, where does the time go?! Yep, Microsoft's Xbox 360 console launched on November 22nd, 2005 - which means the system has now hit the ripe old age of 20. To celebrate, we've been looking back at what made this gaming machine one of the very best - from the system itself to its launch...
Friday21st Nov 2025
Talking Point Do You Have Any Plans For Xbox 360's Big Birthday Weekend?
Dusting off the old machine? Playing some back compat classics?
This weekend, Xbox 360 will be 20 years old, and we've started the celebrations early here at Pure Xbox. I've been drifting about a lot in Project Gotham Racing 3,
News Xbox Brings Back Two Regular Black Friday Promotions, Including $1 Game Pass Trials
Only for Essential & Premium though
We've provided a bunch of coverage on Xbox's massive Black Friday digital sale already, including all of the backwards compatible deals and the games that are now at their lowest price ever on the Microsoft Store. However,
News Battlefield 6 Is An Absolute Smash Hit, The Best-Selling Game On Xbox In 2025 So Far (US)
The region's highest single-month game sales since MWII!
Circana's Mat Piscatella has again taken to social media in recent days to share game sales data for the US in 2025, and perhaps unsurprisingly Battlefield 6 is an absolute smash hit, especially on Xbox and PC. On those two platforms specifically, the new EA shooter is officially the...
Thursday20th Nov 2025
News Xbox Announces 9 Titles Coming To Game Pass At November's Partner Preview Showcase
An absolutely stacked show for XGP
This evening's Xbox Partner Preview showcase moved at a blistering pace, with nine Xbox Game Pass titles headlining the 16-game strong show. It stands to reason that you may have missed some of these reveals! So, we're here to round up every single title that was unveiled today for Xbox Game Pass - including the
News 'Tides Of Annihilation' Is Looking Pretty Impressive So Far, And It'll Be Xbox Play Anywhere
A big trailer at the Xbox Partner Preview!
Upcoming action-adventure game Tides of Annihilation has just got a meaty trailer during today's Xbox Partner Preview event - and we must say, it's looking like a pretty impressive romp so far. We still don't have a proper release date for this one yet, but it's now available to wishlist on Xbox Series X|S...
News Free Play Days: Try These Xbox Games For Free (November 20-23)
Your latest set of free Xbox trials
Welcome to another Xbox Free Play Days weekend! Microsoft is bringing six games to the program starting today - including Expeditions: A MudRunner Game, Police Simulator: Patrol Officers and more. We've also got a generous three-hour trial of Ready or Not running right now, so we'll link to a separate piece on...
News Black Ops 7's Messy Campaign Is Being Detached From 'Endgame' Mode This Week
You'll soon be able to skip the story to play Endgame
At the moment, a bonus 'Endgame' mode unlocks for Black Ops 7 players who've suffered through the game's cobbled-together story campaign - but thankfully, the team is about to drop the campaign completion requirement for its bonus extraction mode. Yep, developer Treyarch has announced that...
News Four Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (November 20)
Update: We've got two surprise shadow drops!
Welcome to your latest Xbox Game Pass roundup! We've got two new additions to the library today, including Ubisoft's The Crew Motorfest which is a pretty big arrival for PC and Ultimate players. Here's what's coming to Xbox Game Pass today (November 20): Monsters Are Coming! Rock & Road (PC) (PC, U
Wednesday19th Nov 2025
Guide Xbox Partner Preview Showcase November 2025: Date, Start Times & What To Expect
A new Xbox event coming this week
As confirmed a few days ago, Microsoft will host its latest Xbox Partner Preview showcase this week - featuring a bunch of third-party titles with a focus on Xbox Play Anywhere and Xbox Game Pass. So, we're going to detail exa
News Three Games Are Available Across Multiple Xbox Game Pass Tiers Today (November 19)
A "day one" PC launch and two Premium additions
Welcome to a new Xbox Game Pass update! We've got three titles joining various different Game Pass tiers today, including a brand-new PC launch on GPU and a couple of titles moving over to XGP Premium. Moonlighter 2 is that brand-new launch — which arrives in early access on PC today (and consoles...
Tuesday18th Nov 2025
News These Nine Games Are Coming To Xbox Game Pass (November 19 - December 2)
Your latest roundup of new additions
Microsoft has today unveiled its latest roundup of new Xbox Game Pass titles, giving us a full picture of exactly what's coming to each tier over the last couple of weeks in November (and first couple days in December!). There's some really good stuff in here as well, such as the Ubisoft racer The Crew...
Monday17th Nov 2025
News Two Xbox Game Pass Titles Nominated For GOTY At The Game Awards, But Microsoft Misses Out
No first-party games in the GOTY list
Geoff Keighley & co. have just announced the nominations in each category for their upcoming The Game Awards show, and while two day one Game Pass titles make the main Game of the Year list, Xbox Game Studios misses out on any top-tier nominations. The Game Awards' 2025 GOTY is as follows:
News Xbox Partner Preview November 2025 Showcase Confirmed For This Week
Featuring 007: First Light and more
At the tail end of October, Windows Central's Jez Corden dropped a report detailing an Xbox Partner Preview event coming this month - and now an official Xbox Wire post has all the details on the upcoming third-party focused showcase. Microsoft's next Xbox Partner Preview takes place at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm GMT...
News Xbox Dev Obsidian Says It Hasn't Used Generative AI 'At All' So Far
Even with releasing 3 games in a year
The use of AI in video games is a hot topic at the moment - especially in the wake of the whole Tim Sweeney, ARC Raiders debacle from last week. We've also seen reports that Black Ops 7 contains some use of AI recently, but fellow Xbox studio Obsidian Entertainment has come to definitively say that it hasn't...
Saturday15th Nov 2025
Talking Point Xbox Is 24 Years Old Today, What Do You Expect From Next Year's 25th Birthday?
A big anniversary is coming in 2026
Today is November 15th, 2025 - which means Xbox is officially 24 years old! Yep, Microsoft brought the OG Xbox and its accompanying games lineup to market almost a quarter of a century ago to this day; with The Rock and Bill Gates introducing it to the world back in 2001. We of course want to wish the system (and...
News Two Games Are Confirmed For Xbox Game Pass In December 2025 So Far
An early look at next month
As we always do around this time of the month, we're taking an early look today at what's ahead for December 2025's Xbox Game Pass selection, with two titles having been confirmed for the service next month already. The headline game so far is definitely Routine; this long-in-development sci-fi adventure looks well worth...
Friday14th Nov 2025
News Hi-Fi RUSH Is Now Published By Krafton, And It's Staying On Xbox Game Pass
"Players can continue to play without interruption"
More than a year after Krafton first announced that it'd be buying Hi-Fi RUSH and its developer from Microsoft, the team has detailed exactly what's happening today as the publishing of its colourful musical adventure moves over to the PUBG maker. In short, from November 14th, Hi-Fi RUSH will be...
News Developing For Xbox Can Be Difficult, So Microsoft Is Taking Major Steps To 'Remove Barriers'
Making it more Steam-like, you might say
We've heard a bit in the past how some indie developers have found it tough to bring their games to Xbox for whatever reason - stuff like the The Mortuary Assistant, for example, where it ended up having to be delayed on Xbox alone. It's not a common thing that crops up, but Microsoft understandably wants to...
Crap Ops
Where do I even start with the Black Ops 7 campaign? Following last year's fantastic effort led by developer Raven Software, Black Ops 7 contains a messy, stitched-together story mode that barely constitutes as a Call of Duty campaign whatsoever. Intrigued? Well, I'll do my best to explain what's going on here, but the long and short of it...
Thursday13th Nov 2025
News Seven New Games Added To Xbox Retro Classics, Including A PS1 Title From 1997
November's batch of new additions has arrived
Microsoft has added seven new games to its Xbox Retro Classics library for November 2025, following the four that joined the lineup around this time in October. We've actually got a PS1 title in the mix for November as well! The Lost Vikings 2 is that game, which is a puzzle-platformer that received...
News Free Play Days: Try These Xbox Games For Free (November 13-16)
Your latest set of free Xbox titles for the weekend
Xbox Free Play Days is now live! Ahead of the coming weekend, Microsoft has added five games to the program - with one of those being Grand Theft Auto Online which we covered earlier this week here at Pure Xbox. As for the other four titles, well, here's your full list of Free Play Days games...
Random Valve's Steam Machine Is Reminding Folks Of Those Old Xbox Series S Mockups
Project Lockhart, anyone?
Okay, we've got to admit, Valve's new Steam Machine is pretty cute, right? The little 'GabeCube', as it's affectionately being named in some corners of the internet, is Valve's new attempt to bridge the gap between console and PC hardware - in the wake of its successful
News Xbox Game Pass Users Are 'Moving To New Zealand' Again To Play Black Ops 7 Early
Some regions can play before others...
It's finally almost time for the launch of Black Ops 7 on Xbox, with the game officially releasing this week on November 14th. However, as is becoming the norm each year, fans have already started talking about plans to 'visit New Zealand' to begin playing a little early. Yes, the biggest open secret in the...
