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
Thursday18th Dec 2025
News Xbox's Blizzard Team Is Preparing For Its 'Biggest Year Yet' In 2026
What could we see?
We already know that Xbox Game Studios has a pretty big year planned in 2026 with the likes of Fable, Forza Horizon 6, Gears of War: E-Day and Halo: Campaign Evolved set to land next year, and now the folks over at Blizzard Entertainment sound like they're getting in on the Xbox anniversary party as well. Speaking with
News Free Play Days: Try These Xbox Games For Free (December 18-21)
More free trials for Xbox players
Welcome to your latest Xbox Free Play Days lineup! Microsoft has today revealed the full list of games available with the program for the coming weekend - including some Call of Duty and Fallout trials which we've covered elsewhere this week at Pure Xbox: Here's the full FPD lineup this week: Ark: Survival...
Wednesday17th Dec 2025
News 40+ Games Were Added To Xbox Play Anywhere In November 2025
Silent Hill 2 the headline addition
As part of the Xbox December 2025 Update, Microsoft has highlighted more than 40 Xbox Play Anywhere titles added to the program last month, including major games such as Silent Hill 2, Football Manager 26, Dave the Diver and more! Many of the
News Black Ops 7 Was The Best-Selling Game In November, But Battlefield 6 Remains Top For 2025 (US)
Circana has all the details
We've heard a lot about how Battlefield 6 and Black Ops 7 have been performing in the sales department already, and now Circana has some fresh data on how both titan FPS titles have been getting on commercially in the US. First off, despite Black Ops 7 dropping off
News Xbox Highlights Four Retro Classics Coming Soon To Game Pass
Big player milestone also announced
As part of the Xbox December Update, Microsoft has announced the next four titles coming to Xbox Retro Classics; the retro gaming collection that's been available to Game Pass subscribers since May 2025. Three of those titles are included in the image up above, and thankfully, Microsoft has also listed all four...
News Call Of Duty: Black Ops 7 Free Trial Now Live On Xbox One & Series X|S
Here's how to get in
Xbox's Activision team has dropped its first free trial period for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, now live on all platforms including Xbox One and Series X|S. This first-ever free access period for this year's COD includes "a selection of Multiplayer and Zombies content including the fan-favourite 'Nuketown 2025'". Here's Xbox's...
Tuesday16th Dec 2025
News Two New Features Highlighted In The Xbox December 2025 Update
One mobile focused, one PC focused
Xbox is back again with its "December Update" of new features, and it's actually quite a small roundup this time around, highlighted by two new arrivals along with the usual set of new Play Anywhere, Stream Your Own Game (etc.) titles. The big feature is something we've already covered here at Pure Xbox, and...
Rumour COD 2027 Will Be A New Sub-Series With 'Completely New Characters' On Xbox
A direct response to Black Ops 6 & 7?
Last week, Xbox's Call of Duty team put out a statement announcing that there'll be no more "back-to-back" Modern Warfare or Black Ops games in the series following poor sales for
Saturday13th Dec 2025
News Two Games Are Confirmed For Xbox Game Pass In January 2026 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 January 2026's Xbox Game Pass selection, with two titles having been confirmed for the service next month already. Our headline game so far, simply by nature of the fact that it's coming for both console and PC players, is...
Friday12th Dec 2025
Talking Point What Do You Hope To See From Xbox Developer Direct Next Month?
Announced yesterday by Xbox!
Yesterday, in and amongst all of The Game Awards madness, Microsoft's Matt Booty came out and quietly announced Xbox Developer Direct 2026 - featuring Fable and Forza Horizon 6 developer Playground Games. We certainly expected this event to go ahead next mo
Thursday11th Dec 2025
News Free Play Days: Try These Xbox Games For Free (December 11-14)
Three games to play for free this weekend!
As expected, Xbox Free Play Days has returned for the next few days! We've got three games in the mix this week, one of which requires a Game Pass membership (The Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: The Amulet of Chaos) with the other two being completely free for everyone on Xbox to try. Here are the Xbox Free Play...
News Digital Foundry Analysis Showcases 60FPS Versions Of Red Dead Redemption On Xbox
Parity, finally!
Red Dead Redemption for Xbox Series X|S is finally here, and now that most of you should have gotten your free upgrade if you were eligible, we're sure plenty of Xbox fans have been enjoying this Rockstar classic at 60FPS. Well, the folks at Digital Foundry are here as well to d
Wednesday10th Dec 2025
News Xbox's New Buy One, Get One Free Sale Includes A Selection Of Indie Titles
Live for the next week
Xbox has just set a new edition of its Buy One, Get One Free sales live on the Microsoft Store today - with this particular promotion revolving around a pretty slim selection of indie titles all-told. Yep, as these deals usually go, this isn't the most inspired list from Xbox here, but there are some standouts such as the...
News PlayStation Highlights Halo: Campaign Evolved As One Of Its 'Must-Play' Games For 2026
We're living in strange times
PlayStation has just dropped an overview trailer for what's coming to PS5 in 2026, and while we certainly wouldn't normally cover that here at Pure Xbox, one certain big green inclusion has made us reconsider. Sony is directly advertising Halo: Campaign Evolved as one of its "must-play games coming soon to PS5". We...
News These Two Games Are Your Final Xbox Game Pass Additions For 2025 (December 10-11)
2026 is upon us!
Welcome to your latest Xbox Game Pass update! Today, NetherRealm's Mortal Kombat 1 joins the XGP library - playable for Series X|S, PC and Cloud players across the PC Game Pass, Premium and Ultimate tiers. We also have one more addition for tomorrow at the time of writing; that being Bratz: Rhythm & Style. So, we're going to round...
Tuesday9th Dec 2025
News Xbox & Activision Issue Statement On The Future Of Call Of Duty Following Black Ops 7 Backlash
"A message from the Call of Duty team..."
After what sounds like a disappointing launch for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Xbox's Activision team has put out a frank and surprisingly open message about the future of the franchise moving forward. In an address to series fans, Activision has announced that it will no longer release back-to-back Black Ops...
News Xbox & Bethesda Shadow Drop Another Switch 2 Game, And You'll Never Guess What It Is
How many times?!
Those of us who are enjoying Switch 2 right now are pretty intrigued to see which games Xbox brings to the platform in the near future; the team has plenty of recent games to move over, right?! Wrong, current-gen Nintendo players are being treated to The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim once again. Yep, Xbox's Bethesda team has today shadow...
News Take-Two Hires Former Perfect Dark Leads To Spin Up A Brand-New Project
A second take
Following Perfect Dark's cancellation back in July, we heard reports that GTA maker Take-Two had tried to take over the project before talks collapsed, but it sounds as though the mega publisher liked what it saw. The same so
News Four Games Are Available Today With Xbox Game Pass (December 9)
One of the biggest drops of the month!
Welcome to your latest Xbox Game Pass update! Today, we have four titles joining the main Game Pass Ultimate library - three across console and PC, and one PC-only addition. Here's all the info you need on today's Xbox Game Pass titles (December 9): A Game About Digging A
Monday8th Dec 2025
Talking Point Four Years On, Did Halo Infinite Ever Live Up To Expectations?
With major updates done, what's your final verdict?
Xbox has reminded us that Halo Infinite launched four years ago today (the full campaign version anyway), so we want to check in with the Pure Xbox community on your feelings about this particular series entry almost half a decade later, especially with the game's major updates now wrapping up...
News Xbox Dev Reveals That Sony Asked About Microsoft Flight Sim Going To PS5 Years Ago
The 2024 edition hits PlayStation today
Back in September, we learnt that Microsoft Flight Simulator was jetting off to PS5 this year - and now an interesting interview with an Xbox developer talks about the series' interesting journey to PlayStation platforms. Speaking with XDA, Microsoft's Flight Sim lead dev Jorg Neumann talked about the...
Saturday6th Dec 2025
News Here's What Might Leave Xbox Game Pass In January 2026
Some early predictions
What's leaving Xbox Game Pass in January 2026? Well, Microsoft hasn't confirmed anything just yet, but based on some games that were added to the service this time last year, we can at least make a few predictions ahead of time. We know that a lot of Xbox users want more advance notice of games leaving Xbox Game Pass, but...
Friday5th Dec 2025
News Clockwork Revolution Dev Shares New Message About Its Eagerly Anticipated Xbox RPG
"This is the most complex game I've ever worked on"
Clockwork Revolution has a bit of hype behind it within the Xbox fanbase - heck, even boss Phil Spencer sounds pretty excited about what inXile is cooking up. And, while info on the title remains scarce, the team has delivered a new message about the game as part of the latest PC Gaming Sho
Thursday4th 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...
