X-Box Developer Direct 2025

Like last year, this Developer Direct was a nice way to showcase not only the games, but the studios and people responsible for creating them. So what got me excited? DOOM: The Dark Ages looks fantastic. As highly as I rated Eternal, I didn’t want TDA to play the same way so I’m glad they’ve taken the series in a new direction.

Or rather, an old direction, I suppose, as TDA is more reminiscent of the original DOOM games than Eternal was. It’s slower, more measured and appears to offer a more open hub-like map design – at least in certain areas. This is a game I’d like to pick up at release if I can find the time.

South of Midnight looks lovely from a visual point of view. I like the style and the animation. I also love the setting. In terms of gameplay, I’m not seeing anything here I can get very excited about. It reminds me a little of Kena: Bridge of Spirits which I reviewed back in March 2023.

That was also a charming and fun little adventure, but nothing particularly special in terms of gameplay. There’s also similarities when it comes to structure as in both Kena and Midnight you’re cleansing ‘corruption’ from the local environment in order to progress.

I don’t typically like turn-based combat systems, and if I’m going to like one it either has to be a really good one, or offer a fresh twist on an old formula. I’m hoping Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 will do both because I really like the concept and the visual style. I feel this one has a lot of potential but we’ll see how it all comes together.

And finally we have Ninja Gaiden 4. I have no real history with the Ninja Gaiden series – I think I might have played one on the original X-Box back in the day but I’m not totally sure. So I wasn’t super excited about this announcement until I saw the Platinum Games logo pop up and then I was very, very interested.

It’s weird seeing people talk online about PG like they’re in some kind of creative ‘decline’ when they released Bayonetta 3 in 2022 and Bayonetta Origins in 2023 – two absolute bangers that followed on from those other absolute bangers NieR: Automata in 2017 and Astral Chain in 2019. In the time it takes a AAA Sony studio to produce a single game, PG knocked out four of the best games you’ll ever play.

And Ninja Gaiden 4 looks f**king great. I’m all in on this one. I might even give the Ninja Gaiden 2 Black remake a spin if they fix up some of those bugs and performance issues I’ve seen reported, but it’s the Platinum spin on the series that I really want to see.

Overall, this was another great show and it’s kind of nuts that all these games are releasing on Game Pass. The value is pretty insane and I really don’t know why I’m not yet subscribed. I guess I’m just an old man who still likes to ‘own’ my games, even though technically speaking, I kind of don’t anyway. But, whatever, Microsoft don’t care – they’re getting my money either way.