FraserG

Seriously though, this is exciting stuff! I've loved discovering more Steam games since the ROG Xbox Ally came out, and if I can do that on the next Xbox console too, that sounds fantastic to me.

I would personally like to congratulate Microsoft for announcing this news at 8pm on a Thursday evening. Thanks a lot 🙃

@Globo Whoops, apologies! I think the system auto-corrected it for me when I didn't want it to

Update: Iron Galaxy has issued a statement in response to a PC Gamer story that picked up on this, denying that it's a tease for a Fallout project:

"Nope! There is nothing to see here. Sorry to disturb the volcanoes, but that was just a BTS look at our company meeting. We use that slide every month and has nothing to do with anything Fallout being worked on. As you can imagine, we love Fallout. Now pardon us as we retreat back into our vault."

@awp69 Yep, seen it - thank you! It's been added to today's Game Pass roundup article and we'll be covering it in a separate Nintendo Indie World roundup too.

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2026/03/three-games-are-available-today-with-xbox-game-pass-march-3

@Fiendish-Beaver I don't think there will be any major shift in terms of the exclusive strategy, aside from maybe spelling it out more efficiently.

I'm just encouraged by this apparent focus on console... feels like it's been in the background for years now.

@RiverGenie I feel like at least one of them will just get shadow dropped at some point. Todd Howard keeps mentioning how he loved the shadow drop of Oblivion Remastered.

@Lup Argh, I didn't come across that! It's been removed now, thanks for letting me know.

@Fiendish-Beaver "I don't believe that Sharma has been bought in to sunset Xbox, but the fact that so many people are searching whether Xbox is coming to an end does, at the very least, demonstrate the complete lack of confidence that people have in Xbox right now, and I would put money on it that at least some of those people that searched for this decided that Xbox was too much of a risk and bought a PlayStation instead."

I agree, and I think this is where ideally they need to come out and say "look, this is our plan, this is our roadmap, and this is how we're convincing you that we're investing in Xbox for the long term".

Sharma obviously needs time to settle into the role, but it'll be interesting to see what she says around the time of the Xbox Games Showcase in particular.

@Weebleman Haha, if only Tricky was backwards compatible!

"I imagine very few would look to places and articles like this to clarify."

I agree, but I hope they do! That's the goal with an article like this - try and provide some clarification for the people who are clearly panic-searching their way to find an answer.

@eduscxbox I think the vast majority of people will have glossed over that he hasn't worked at Microsoft for years. They'll have just seen the headlines and the social media posts and the videos that are focused on his mention that Xbox is being sunsetted.

@Gemini53 Thank you very much!

I think there are reasonable arguments for keeping it exclusive and making it multiplatform — it all depends on how you look at it.

We could have entered in 2026 with Xbox making Forza, Fable, Gears and Halo all exclusive to the Series X and S (plus PC), along with GTA 6 being a console exclusive to Xbox and PS5 at the end of the year. That would surely have shipped a whole bunch of X and S systems, especially if they were able to discount them a little bit, and it would give people more reasons to pick an Xbox console over the PS5.

Alternatively, I can see why shipping all your games on PlayStation and Nintendo makes sense from a revenue standpoint, especially when Xbox has been trailing in console sales for over a decade now. It also aligns with the "play anywhere" messaging that defines Xbox these days, and in consumer terms it's nice that everyone gets to experience the same games regardless of the platform they own.

I don't really mind which path they go down, but one thing is key — set our your intentions from the start. At the moment, we have games that ship "day one" on PlayStation, games that don't appear for a year on PlayStation, and then a few that don't seem to cross over at all. The schedule for Nintendo ports seems even more chaotic. We don't know what to expect at the moment, and I feel like the lack of clear messaging is what irritates people the most.

@MaccaMUFC I agree, I like the direction they're going if the rumours are true — a console/PC box definitely appeals to me, especially after test-driving the ROG Xbox Ally for the past few months.

@Gemini53 I wouldn't panic! I'm not

@umeandgames Yeah, I didn't play KCD1 and have been enjoying KCD2 just fine.

@Globo I've got two! The Taito one and the Atari one. The screen is a bit small for my liking, but the build quality is good and it's great for taking on the go. It's nice to just have in my pocket when I know I'll be waiting around somewhere.

It'll be interesting to see how Banjo fares considering there's only a d-pad and some slightly awkward shoulder buttons. Apparently it's been optimised for the device though.

@somnambulance No worries! Just keep in mind that Xbox Wire can sometimes be wrong with their dates, so we'll have to wait and see for sure.

@Ken_Kaniff Thank you! That's why we do it — it's so hard to keep up with events like these otherwise. Unless you're watching eight hours of livestreams or you're hyper-focused on the IGN website / YouTube channel, it's so easy to miss.

Fair play to them for still pushing out periodic updates for this! They suggested support was ending in July 2023, so it's a surprise to still be getting adjustments three years later.

I would 100% take smooth 60FPS performance over slightly better visuals here. The Series S version seems great.

@Doomcrow Relooted had support through the ID@Xbox Developer Acceleration Program, but that doesn't class it as an Xbox Studios game. Towerborne is the first 2026 release specifically under the Xbox Game Studios banner (Xbox is the sole publisher).

Just a couple of new additions I'm putting into the list:

Hotel Barcelona
Transport Fever 2

@DennisReynolds I think they launched strong in terms of their feature set. Not necessarily in terms of the games, although it felt much better than the Xbox One launch primarily because of backwards compatibility with original Xbox, 360 and Xbox One titles.

Not to mention stuff like Smart Delivery — I remember being cheesed off at having to pay for Black Flag all over again when it got an Xbox One version, whereas so many of my Xbox One games ended up getting free updates to their Series X and S versions.

Also, repairing Square Enix's relationship with Xbox and bringing Final Fantasy "truly" to the platform last year is something that was Phil Spencer's doing, according to the Remake director:

"We had only just begun working together, and I was truly looking forward to accomplishing many more things side by side. Thanks to your presence and leadership, the partnership between the FF franchise and Xbox truly came together. I’m deeply grateful for that."

I LOVED the first eight-ish years of Phil Spencer's reign as boss. He turned around the disaster that was the Xbox One launch, introduced stuff like Game Pass and backwards compatibility that I still adore today, came across really well in his interviews, and seemed to have a clearly defined vision that everyone could get behind.

Somewhere around the Bethesda and Activision Blizzard acquisitions, that vision got clouded — but I assume that's because of decisions that were out of his control. He used to talk a lot about how much he liked Japanese developers, so I highly doubt it was his decision to shut down Tango Gameworks, for example.

Ultimately though, I'm full of gratitude for Phil and everything his team have given us, particularly during those early Xbox One years where Microsoft could very easily have pulled the plug on Xbox entirely. I know the console sales never recovered compared to PS4, but the platform experience and its features evolved to such a substantial degree, and as a result, it's had one of the biggest lifespans of any console in history. It's 13 years later and the Xbox One is still getting new games, still supports Xbox Game Pass, still remains immense for backwards compatibility — the Xbox brand didn't even EXIST 13 years before the Xbox One came out!

The first few years of the Series X and S were great too in my opinion. I remember Game Pass really evolving in a major way in 2021 (I believe that was the first year we ever got a "day one" third-party title on the service), as well as new features like FPS Boost, new additions to backwards compatibility, Quick Resume improvements, etc.

You can say what you like about the first-party games themselves (I still think they've been good on the whole, particularly in recent years), but the other stuff is really where Phil and his team shined for me.

@BacklogBrad @ozkrmz Highly doubt they'd scrap a new console at this point, it will have been in motion for quite some time now. Despite the leadership changes, it seems unlikely there will be any major alterations to what they're planning for the next system.

@themightyant Yeah, absolutely! Got a long list of ideas we're hoping to get to... it's been a crazy few days

@Jenkinss It's already been covered, just with a different angle and quotes than you might have seen elsewhere:

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2026/02/xbox-creator-reveals-his-two-tips-for-the-new-microsoft-gaming-ceo

@fatpunkslim I agree that the messaging is what's wrong with Xbox right now. They're actually doing a lot of things right, but it doesn't feel like it... "This is an Xbox" feels like it's alienated more people than brought them on board.

If they can get the messaging right, put some focus back on console again, and still stick with the PC / cloud / multiplatform strategy, that's the ideal way forward IMO.

@fatpunkslim I can't imagine for a second that PC has been a failure for them, especially in terms of Steam.

@Isca @themightyant Thank you both! 68 hours scares me off Yakuza 0, but I still really want to play it. I actually bought Yakuza Kiwami for my Switch last year and played around two hours on a plane trip, but felt like I didn't grasp what was going on particularly well... I'd be curious to see how you feel going from Yakuza 0 to Kiwami and whether it's a must to start with the prequel or not.

I'm so glad you're enjoying Fable as well! That's the most satisfying thing about this job — encouraging others to try things, and then hearing about how much they've enjoyed them!

@Questionable_Duck Project Windless is confirmed! I've got an email sitting in my inbox that says it's an Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S title

@fatpunkslim Honestly, that's a tagline we've been using for State of Play roundups for years now, and it's targeted more at the casual gaming fan rather than the Pure Xbox faithful who already know they won't all be PS5 exclusives. I see your point though and always appreciate constructive feedback.

@Titntin I really appreciate that, thank you. Pure Xbox wouldn't be anything without its community, and I feel a great responsibility to live up to everyone's hopes and expectations. Fingers crossed we're getting things right more often than not!

List has been updated, thank you everyone!

@Fiendish-Beaver Separate! It's set two years ahead of the original game. Here's a bit more about it:

https://www.purexbox.com/features/hands-on-high-on-knife-a-fantastic-expansion-for-a-divisive-xbox-game-pass-title

@Weebleman Project Windless is official for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. We got a press release confirming it.

@Questionable_Duck Ascendance has been added. Townfall website is saying it's PS5, Steam and Epic Games Store only at the moment. Will wait on more details for Rev. Noir.

@JON22 @Sindayl It's PlayStation, Atari Jaguar, MS-DOS, Game Boy Advance, and Game Boy Color.

@Blurd Fair enough. We classed Marathon as a "reveal" because it got a release date. Pragmata, Resident Evil Requiem and 007 First Light weren't mentioned because nothing new was revealed for them.

@StylesT Don't know yet, still waiting on confirmation.

@DoomSlayer87 Yeah, not going to count it as a "reveal" though because we've seen it so many times. Same with Pragmata, Resident Evil Requiem, etc.

@Daffy-Duck I really enjoyed the DLC

@fatpunkslim @BacklogBrad Yeah, this is the order Xbox gave us. They're just doing it in alphabetical format for each category.

@AccessibleDaydream Interesting! I never came across any of those except the Microsoft Store one, which was ongoing for what felt like years — I was constantly asked to update the MS Store, and half the time it didn't want to do it. As you say though, it seems like they finally got that one under control.

Sorry to hear you had such a rough experience.

@IOI To be fair, they are still doing those bug squashes and performance improvements, but they're not highlighting them publicly anymore for whatever reason.

If you look at the Xbox Insider builds that go out every week though, they're definitely still working on console stuff.

@darylb24 @Elbow This is pretty much it, yeah. We'll continue to do the big first-party reviews, along with a few third-party games here and there, but many of the third-party ones weren't generating enough views to make a 20+, 30+, 40+ 50+ hour playthrough worth it.

We tend to do more "Hands On" features for third-party games these days, as it allows us to share our thoughts without having to invest so much time in a full playthrough:

https://www.purexbox.com/features/hands-on-highguard-feels-smooth-and-solid-on-xbox-but-desperately-needs-more-ways-to-play

https://www.purexbox.com/features/hands-on-red-dead-redemption-for-xbox-series-x-makes-a-great-first-impression

https://www.purexbox.com/features/ive-never-played-final-fantasy-7-before-but-im-liking-the-remake-on-xbox-so-far

@Daffy-Duck Unfortunately, it's not going to have anything to do with profile age — every single person in an applicable region will have to go through the age verification process (if you want to have "access to certain social features") in accordance with law.

@Markatron84 The thumbnail image? Yeah, that's me and my wife's accounts (blurred for her privacy, I don't care about mine! )

@Elbow You're very welcome!

@shiningpikablu252 Apologies, this must have been mixed up with something else — it's just Series X and Series S.