Timeline
Tuesday30th Dec 2025
News Xbox Is Sending Out Forza Horizon 6 Gift Packages Ahead Of Its 2026 Release
Only to influencers though
Next year will obviously mark the release of Forza Horizon 6, and it sounds like Xbox is gearing up to share more news on the title very soon, with multiple influencers receiving special gift packages over the past few days. These packages contain various goodies like a custom numberplate, "Greetings from Japan" postcard...
News 'Nintendo Buying Xbox' Begins Trending After Hoax Goes Viral On Social Media
You wish, Mario
You won't be surprised to hear that we're always tracking the latest trends related to Xbox, and one that totally caught us by surprise over the past 24 hours was that Nintendo was "buying Xbox". Naturally, we had to do a bit of research into this and figure out what was going on. It turns out that a Facebook page known as Nintendo...
Monday29th Dec 2025
News Latest Sales Estimates Suggest Xbox Sold Over Two Million Series X|S Consoles In 2025
Despite the price increases
With just a handful of days left of 2025, the folks over at VGChartz have shared their latest console sales estimates today (that go up to November), and they suggest that Xbox has sold over two million Series X|S consoles this year. Compared to 2024, this is said to be a -45.1% decrease on the previous figure of 4.79...
Report Xbox & PlayStation Could Delay Next-Gen Consoles Due To RAM Price Increases
"The industry as a whole is concerned about RAM availability"
Back in November, we shared a report from Moore's Law Is Dead on YouTube that suggested Xbox Series X|S prices could increase again soon due to RAM shortages, and there's concern that it might delay the next Xbox console as well. Well-known ins
News Halo 2's E3 Demo From May 2003 Has Leaked Online, And Here's A Look At Some Footage
Incredible stuff!
Bungie's Halo 2 unsurprisingly proved a smash hit when it arrived on the original Xbox in November 2004, but over a year prior to that, the company showed off the game at June's E3 2003 event. To mark the appearance, the company built a special E3 demo that would mark the first gameplay footage of Halo 2 to be seen by the public,...
News Xbox Owner Thinks They've Found A 'Major Design Flaw' That Impacts Game Performance
Related to having lots of friends and messages
Over the weekend, a pro Halo player known as Brett Leonard (or "Naded") took to social media to highlight what they think is a "major design flaw" on Xbox consoles that's actually hurting performance in games. Leonard first posted about this on December 18th, suggesting that "Xbox messages are tied to...
News Xbox & Microsoft Dominate The List Of 'Most Covered' Gaming Companies In 2025
But Nintendo still wins the individual category
The good folks at GamesIndustry.biz recently published their annual "Year in Numbers" roundup of the games industry for 2025, and the most interesting bit from an Xbox perspective relates to the "most covered companies" section. Over the past two years, Xbox has led this category with 308,834 articles...
Saturday27th Dec 2025
Poll What Were The Best Xbox Game Pass Additions In 2025?
It's been a busy old year for XGP!
Phew, what a busy year it's been for Xbox Game Pass in 2025! We've seen so many great games being added to the service over the past 12 months, a few of which have been Game of the Year contenders including Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, Blue Prince, Hollow Knight: Silksong and a whole lot more. And of course, it's...
Feature All New Games Coming To Xbox In January 2026
Release dates for every January Xbox launch
Welcome to our roundup of all new Xbox games coming out in January 2026! Below, we've listed every Xbox game with a January 2026 release date, including all confirmed Xbox Game Pass titles for January 2026 so far. Without further ado, here are all the new games coming to Xbox in January 2026: The...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (December 27-28)
Any Christmas presents to get stuck into?
It's the final weekend of the year! Not a whole lot is going on right now when it comes to Xbox, but we're betting you've got a massive backlog to get stuck into this weekend, including any Christmas presents you might have received! Here's what we're playing over the next few days: Fraser Gilbert, Editor:...
Friday26th Dec 2025
Talking Point Which Xbox Games Have You Managed To Finish In 2025?
Reaching the credits
So, with Christmas out the way and just a few days left of 2025 to go, we thought this would be a good opportunity to ask about the games you've played this year - and more specifically the games you've managed to finish. It's not uncommon for many of us to play tens if not hundreds of games without finishing them in a calendar...
Feature Pure Xbox's Game Of The Year 2025: The Results You Didn't See
Including how many votes Expedition 33 got!
Yesterday, we published our Pure Xbox Game of the Year results for 2025, and the winner was crowned as Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by a huge margin (no surprise!), followed by Xbox first-party titles Avowed and DOOM: The Dark Ages. The GOTY feature is always focused on the games themselves rather than...
Thursday25th Dec 2025
Feature Pure Xbox's Game Of The Year 2025
Another expedition comes to an end
Here we go, it's officially time for the Pure Xbox Game of the Year 2025 roundup! A couple of weeks ago, we asked the Pure Xbox community to vote on your favourite Xbox releases of the past twelve months, and you responded with over 1,000 more votes than we saw last year (5,597 compared to 4,209). We thank you...
News Merry Christmas And Happy Holidays From The Pure Xbox Team!
And thank you for your constant support
Today's the day, folks! If you're celebrating Christmas, we hope you have a wonderful day filled with joy and hopefully some Xbox presents, maybe even including a console or two for some members of the PX community! We're naturally slowing down a little bit in terms of content at the moment, but you'll still...
Wednesday24th Dec 2025
Feature Nobody's Really Heard Of It, But This Is One Of My Xbox Games Of The Year For 2025
A hidden gem
When we asked you to vote on your Pure Xbox Game of the Year a couple of weeks ago, the game that received the least votes out of everything was Despelote (with two). That's not a reflection of the game itself, but rather that not many people have come across it — on the Xbox Store, for example, it doesn't even have enough scores to...
Poll How Many Xbox Games Have You Actually Bought In 2025?
A few? A dozen? How about over 50?!
It's been an amazing year for top-quality games in 2025, with multiple Game of the Year candidates releasing on Xbox over the past 12 months, but there's only so much money and spare time to go around — we can't go buying all of them! Xbox Game Pass is always a big factor in this as well, with many of those...
News YouTuber Thinks They've Found More Evidence Of Xbox Making A New Spyro Game
To be developed by Toys for Bob
It's been rumoured for almost two years now that developer Toys for Bob might be working on a new Spyro game, especially since the company entered into a formal agreement for Xbox to publish its next title. Back in March of 2024, YouTuber 'Canadian Guy Eh
News Multiple Games Are Releasing For Xbox On Christmas Day, Including An All-Time Classic
Terrible idea, or secretly genius?
At the start of every week, we often like to highlight some new releases from our "Games Coming To Xbox Next Week" article the previous Saturday, but truth be told there wasn't a lot to get excited about this time around. That said, we've since learned about Taxi Chaos 2, which shadow dropped on the platform...
News Marvel's Blade Director Shares Brief End Of 2025 Update On The Game's Progress
"It will be a special game"
It's been a long time since we last heard anything about Bethesda's upcoming Xbox first-party game Marvel's Blade, but one of the game's directors has shared a brief update on its progress as we come to the end of 2025. Responding to someone on social media, director Dinga Bakaba advised that the development team is...
Tuesday23rd Dec 2025
News 007 First Light Suffers Delay, Will Now Release When GTA 6 Was Supposed To
It's taken over the old May 2026 window from Rockstar Games
We've been eagerly awaiting the release of 007 First Light on Xbox next year, so we're a little saddened (but not too surprised) to hear it's been pushed back slightly from March to May of 2026. Specifically, 007 First Light will now launch on May 27th, 2026. This is one day after the date...
News Hell Let Loose Unveils Huge Roadmap Of Content For 2026, But There's A Catch On Xbox
This might be the time to buy it
It's been a very successful six and a half years for Hell Let Loose since its initial release on PC back in mid-2019, and it sounds like the game is going to evolve substantially once again in 2026 according to a new roadmap. As shared on social media yesterday, Hell Let Loose is scheduled to add multiple new maps,...
News Xbox Exec Pays Respects To Beloved Influencer And 'Incredible Human', Lamarr Wilson
"Rest In Peace Lamarr"
If you've followed Xbox closely over the past few years, you may have come across an extremely popular influencer known as Lamarr Wilson — he's even appeared on the Xbox YouTube channel before, as you can see below. The tech world was rocked over the weekend when it was revealed that Wilson had passed away last month,...
Opinion This Xbox Game Studios Gem Is My Game Of The Year For 2025
Midnight delight
There are some fantastic candidates for Xbox GOTY this year, as is typically the case by the time the end of December draws near. Clair Obscur is bringing in the plaudits en masse, Split Fiction is up there with the best that 2025 has to offer, and DOOM: The Dark Ages is a devilishly awesome effort from Bethesda as well. But, having...
Feature Xbox Game Pass Is Looking Great For 2026, But Only Six Games Have Release Dates So Far
A quick look at what's to come
With Xbox Game Pass getting a big overhaul a few months ago, all eyes are on Microsoft to deliver a big lineup in 2026 - particularly for Ultimate subscribers who are now paying $30 a month for the privilege of being subscribed. When it comes to Xbox first-party, we have some massive games planned for next year...
Rumour Xbox 'Nearly Done' With First Version Of Call Of Duty For Nintendo Switch
Set to arrive in 2026
Back in November, we mentioned that Sledgehammer Games was looking for a developer with Nintendo Switch experience, suggesting the Call of Duty franchise could be making its way to Switch in the near future, and now it's being reported that Xbox is "nearly done" bringing its first COD experience to the platform. This is...
News Taxi Chaos 2 Has Surprise Launched On Xbox Today, Inspired By SEGA's Crazy Taxi Series
Shadow drop alert
One of the games that didn't get mentioned in our "Games Coming To Xbox Next Week" roundup over the weekend was Taxi Chaos 2, and yet it's suddenly arrived on the Xbox Store today as a shadow drop! This is obviously a sequel to the original Taxi Chaos from 2021, which at the time felt like a straight clone of SEGA's Crazy Taxi...
News These Are The Top-Selling Games In The Xbox Countdown Sale 2025
The hottest deals right now
We're fast approaching a week since the massive Xbox Countdown Sale began on the Xbox Store, and just before Christmas rolls around, we thought we'd have a look at the top-selling games in that sale as things stand. When we used to do these roundups, we'd typically highlight either the UK or US versions of the "Top Paid"...
Monday22nd Dec 2025
News Legendary Game Designer Vince Zampella Has Suddenly Died, Aged 55
The Call of Duty, Titanfall creator has died in a car accident
We have some very sad news to report on this evening, as it's emerged that legendary game designer Vince Zampella — the figurehead behind some of the most influential first-person shooters of the last two decades — has suddenly died in a car accident aged 55. As reported on by NBC,...
News PBA Pro Bowling 2026 Reviews Suggest It's One Of The Best Bowling Games Ever On Xbox
Who do you think you are? I am!
The latest edition in the PBA Pro Bowling series (PBA Pro Bowling 2026) quietly released on Xbox last week, and it just so happens that it's been getting excellent reviews - "Very Positive" on Steam based on almost 100 reviews (97% of which are positive) and a 4.6/5 rating on the Xbox Store based on 37 reviews (78% of...
Talking Point Which Xbox Games Deserved More Love This Year?
Anything you wanna shout about?
With The Game Awards now wrapped up and lots of this year's releases getting their fair share of attention at the show (and elsewhere), we want to take a little time to discuss the Xbox games that deserved a bit more love throughout 2025. As is the case pretty much every year, many games tend to fall by the wayside...
News Here Are The Top 10 Xbox Games Of 2025 According To Metacritic
So many GOTY candidates!
We're getting closer and closer to the Pure Xbox Game of the Year 2025 roundup (you'll see it on Christmas Day!), but before we get there, we thought we'd highlight the highest-rated Xbox games of 2025 according to Metacritic. We're not surprised to see that the list is stacked this year, with six games reaching an average...
Talking Point What Games Are You Playing Over Christmas Break?
What's in your plans over Xmas and New Year?
The festive season is truly upon us now as we officially enter Christmas week, which has us thinking and planning and batting off family conversations as we hunker down; trying to tackle our gaming backlogs while we have the chance. And this year, we seem to have a near-endless stack of games to play...
News Microsoft Says It's 'Incorrect' That Xbox Division Is Now Targeting 30% Profit Margins
But the goals are still ambitious
Over the past couple of months, you may have come across this idea that Microsoft has placed a target of 30% profit margins on the Xbox division — and this stems from a report that first mentioned it back in October. At the time, Bloomberg noted how these profit margins were "well above the industry average" of...
News As Forza Motorsport Winds Down, Gran Turismo Is Experiencing A 'Phenomenon' At PlayStation
Similar games, different outcomes
Much has been said about how Forza Motorsport is essentially winding down after two years on the market, with the team recently confirming that no major new content would be added to the game in 2026. That obviously comes as a shame for those who enjoy a more simulation-focused experience than what Forza Horizon...
News New Xbox 'Investigation' Highlights The Dangers Of Banned (And Hacked) Accounts
Do everything you can to keep it safe
We've spoken before how about crucial it is to keep your Xbox account safe, and a new "investigation" highlights how much a problem you could face if your account gets blocked — and specifically if it gets banned. Windows Central editor Jez Corden says he's been "investigating" reports of banned Xbox accounts...
News Battlefield 6 Players Think They've Spotted Evidence Of AI-Generated Cosmetics
"Two barrels on the M4A1, sure."
We're guaranteed to see more and more examples of AI-generated content in games over the coming years, and Battlefield 6 players think they've spotted an example in the form of a "Player Card Sticker" as part of its cosmetics. A couple of days ago, someone took to the Battlefield subreddit to angrily point out how...
Sunday21st Dec 2025
News Xbox's Phil Spencer Shares Lengthy Video Message After Winning 'Industry Icon' Award
"I'm honoured to accept this Industry Icon award"
An event called the Grand Game Awards took place on Friday, celebrating "the best achievements in the gaming industry across the [Middle East and North Africa] region and beyond", and Xbox boss Phil Spencer was recognised as being an "Industry Icon" as part of it. Phil appeared in a video message to...
Saturday20th Dec 2025
Talking Point Will Any Of Xbox's 2026 Releases Become GOTY Contenders Next Year?
We have a huge 12 months ahead!
With The Game Awards 2025 now firmly in our rear-view mirrors and Xbox missing out on a GOTY nomination once again, we've started thinking about next year's event and whether anything that comes out of Microsoft HQ will earn a nomination in 2026. To be clear, we are talking about the Geoff Keighley December bonanza...
News 50+ Games Are Reduced By 90-95% In This Year's Xbox Countdown Sale
HUGE discounts for great games!
Looking for some cheap Xbox games during the Xbox Countdown Sale 2025? We've got an absolutely massive list of 50+ games that are reduced by 90-95% in this winter sale, including so many classics such as Dragon Age: Inquisition, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and ot
Feature These Games Are Coming To Xbox Next Week (December 22-26)
Just a handful of releases for Christmas week
Welcome to your Xbox games roundup for December 22-26! This is obviously Christmas week, so releases are few and far between, but we've still got a handful of new games on the way over the next few days. Here's what's coming to Xbox next week: New Xbox Releases (December 22-26): Injection π23...
Talking Point What Are You Playing This Weekend? (December 20-21)
Something from the Xbox Countdown Sale 2025?
Welcome to the last weekend before Christmas! Yep, we've got plenty of games that may or may not already be wrapped under that big living room tree right now, but that's not stopping us from adding to our digital backlogs via various ongoing sales as well. Of course it's not! Here's what we're playing...
Friday19th Dec 2025
Poll How Are You Getting On With Mortal Kombat 1 On Xbox Game Pass?
Enjoying it?
The final major release of Xbox Game Pass this year was Mortal Kombat 1, which coincided with the removal of Mortal Kombat 11 from the service - a game that felt like it'd been there forever. Mortal Kombat 1 has arguably had more of a turbulent history though, with fans notably expressing their disappointment when the "Definitive...
"I feel incredibly empowered for where we sit."
Blizzard president Johanna Faries has been speaking in a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg today, discussing how the company has changed since she became president in 2024, as well as where it's heading in the future. The most notable bit from an Xbox perspective comes at the end of the chat, when...
News Halo's Master Chief Rides Onto The Field As 2025 Xbox Bowl Winner Is Crowned
Delivering the trophy in a Warthog
We've talked quite a bit about the Xbox Bowl here at Pure Xbox over the past couple of weeks, and last night marked the actual event itself. Spoiler alert, Arkansas State beat Missouri State 34-28 to win the trophy. That trophy was delivered onto the field in Texas by none other than Halo's Master Chief, who rode...
News 10 More Games Set To Be Delisted On Xbox In December 2025
Update: Three additional indie titles added to the mix
As the final month of 2025 draws closer, it's time to take a quick look at what's being removed from the Xbox Store before the year is out, with six games currently set to be delisted in December 2025. Four of these are from publisher Outright Games, although only the Steam versions are...
News Digital Foundry Delivers Its Verdict On The Final Fantasy 7 Remake Demo For Xbox
Series X|S compared to PS5 & Switch 2
Earlier this week, Square Enix dropped a Final Fantasy 7 Remake demo on Xbox Series X|S, and early comparison videos gave us an idea of how the game is shaping up on both Xbox consoles. Now though, the folks over at Digital Foundry have given us a deep
Talking Point How Much Time Have You Spent Gaming On Xbox Consoles This Year?
Compared to other platforms?
These days, there's so much choice in terms of where to play your games, even when it comes to Xbox. The brand used to be heavily console-focused, but now it also incorporates PC, handhelds, cloud gaming and various other things. We've heard about how Xbox Cloud Gaming has grown substantially in 2025, how PC Game Pass...
News Dave The Diver Dev Showcases 'In The Jungle' DLC As Base Game Gets Huge Discount On Xbox
Welcome to the Jungle
Indie hit Dave the Diver may have only just launched on Xbox, but developer MINTROCKET is well into developing its 'In the Jungle' DLC at this point - and a new deep dive has given us our closest look at the expansion yet. As usual, we've thrown this extended look at Dave the Diver: In the Jungle up above; where the team...
News Obsidian To Work On Two DLCs & 'Continual Improvements' To The Outer Worlds 2 In 2026
A message from the team ahead of next year
As we look towards the new year, the team over at Obsidian Entertainment has shared some words with Xbox Wire, highlighting plans to "continually improve" its sci-fi RPG The Outer Worlds 2 in 2026. As part of a general end of year message from Microsoft's studios, Obsidian's Brandon Adler t
News Rhythm Doctor Has Outstanding Reviews, And It's Just Launched As An Xbox Console Exclusive
"Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews on Steam
One of the games that really caught our eye at today's Xbox Tokyo Game Show 2025 showcase was Rhythm Doctor, which is a mad music game that's set to be an Xbox console exclusive when it releases on December 6th, 2025. This one's already available in early access on Steam where it has an "Overwhelmingly...
