Xbox cant wait to get out of 2025 and start talking about the next generation

Date:
Sat, 27 Dec 2025 16:00:00 +0000

Description:
Microsoft priced itself out of the console market and started talking up the next generation.

FULL STORY

Last year, when I ran the rule over Microsoft , Nintendo, and Sony, there
were a lot of reasons to be hopeful for Team Xbox.

The company finished 2024 with a flourish, with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle , finally sealing the seemingly never-ending Activision Blizzard acquisition, and there was hope that its big games in 2025 would show that
its still got much to offer.

This year, its been tough to see the positives. Doom: The Dark Ages was
great, Avowed was another solid RPG from the ever-dependable team at
Obsidian, and South of Midnight told a story that was unique, even if its gameplay offered little real freshness.

Sadly, though, it feels like this was the year Xbox stepped on more rakes
than Sideshow Bob, leaving customers with proverbial black eyes. And for
those that do own an Xbox and havent moved to another system, probably some degree of buyers remorse.

I dont want to spend this entire appraisal on Microsoft's 2025 kicking them, because there were genuinely good things that arrived this year.

The aforementioned Doom prequel was a double-barrel of laughs and offered intense sci-fi/medieval combat that many of us couldnt get enough of, while Avowed was a smaller first-person RPG that packed in some excellently
flexible character building.

When the company held its Xbox Games Showcase, Clockwork Revolution looked fantastic, while the promise of more Final Fantasy titles arriving on Xbox,
as well as a commitment to more big third-party releases, shows the brand
isnt going anywhere just yet.

This was also the year we saw Microsoft remove any notions of roadblocks
around multiplatform titles. The company traded Helldivers 2 with Sony for Forza Horizon 5 , put Gears of War Reloaded onto PS5 , and even committed to putting Halo: Campaign Evolved onto its once-rivals system in 2026.

The trouble is, Microsoft has long relied on Xbox Game Pass to be the glue
that holds together its first-party offerings and third-party titles.

Being able to jump into Black Ops 6 last year, rather than paying the full price on PS5, was welcome, but reports suggest that came at a huge cost of
lost sales for Microsoft (who couldve seen that coming?).

Its solution was simple: take what was once the easiest-to-recommend deal in gaming and dial up the price . And, like boiling frogs, we suspect this wont
be the first time Microsoft turns up the heat to see how many of us are left
in the pan.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate saw the sharpest rise, reaching an eye-watering
$29.99 / 22.99 / AU$35.95 per month. Given that its half the price of a AAA title or more than some of this years biggest games ( Hollow Knight: Silksong and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 come to mind), its perhaps no surprise that
the subscription management page on Xboxs website reportedly crashed as
players strived to cut the ties that bind.

While the company has also tried to raise game prices before being talked
down, its stuck to its Xbox Game Pass changes.

While Xbox Game Pass went from being the deal of the century to something
youd have to think more cautiously about, Xbox consoles stood no chance.

In last years review of Microsoft, I like every other journalist, writer,
and probably consumer wondered why anyone would want an Xbox when the
consoles biggest games are hitting other platforms.

Microsoft seemingly tried to make that decision easier for buyers. First, it raised the prices of Xbox hardware in May, and then repeated the trick in October . The company cited changes in the macroeconomic environment as its reasoning, and while Sony had rolled out a PS5 price hike, the Xbox Series X
is now just $50 cheaper than the PS5 Pro - a console derided for its price at launch, but which offers much more in terms of performance than its 2020
rival.

It felt a little like Xbox throwing its hands up and surrendering a fanbase
and a brand to Microsofts demands for a 30% profit margin .

That makes a Series S and Series X much harder to recommend this year, but while Xbox doesnt offer its own Pro-level console just yet (and seemingly
never will), we did get new hardware sort of.

After years of rumors, we finally saw two versions of the Asus ROG Xbox Ally, which, despite its terrible naming convention, is a pretty solid Steam Deck competitor if youve got the cash for one.

While we had felt fairly sure Microsoft might be running down the clock to
make an exit from the console space, Xbox has started to talk a lot about the next generation.

Speaking to Variety in October, Xbox president Sarah Bond said: We are 100 percent looking at making things in the future. We have our next-gen hardware in development. We've been looking at prototyping, designing. We have a partnership we've announced with AMD around it, so that is coming.

"What we saw here was an opportunity to innovate in a new way and to bring gamers another choice, in addition to our next-gen hardware. We are always listening to what players and creators want. When there is demand for innovation, we're going to build it."

With suggestions that the new console will be more open to additional storefronts and could be PC-like, itll be fascinating to see if it comes to fruition.

Anyway, heres hoping it can show it can be a more responsible custodian of
the huge number of studios now under its banner, were words I ended last
years year in review for Xbox with.

Not only did the company drop the ball at a human level, but it also showed just how out of touch it is. As Microsoft, as a company, rakes in trillions
of dollars and pushes for more AI investment, Xbox laid off 9,000 staff
members earlier this year .

I could dwell on the loss of Perfect Dark , or Everwild , or a new sci-fi property from the Elder Scrolls Online developers, but instead, Ill point to that number again - nine thousand.

Cuts happened across several Microsoft studios, including Rare, Turn 10, Halo Studios, and more, as well as Bethesda and Activision Blizzard teams.

If ever there is one damning indictment of Xboxs management, however, its The Initiative. A team formed to make AAAA games, which pulled talent from all
over the industry to reboot Perfect Dark ; it was also working with Crystal Dynamics.

After five years and a gameplay trailer that may or may not have shown a realistic expectation for the title, the game was canceled, and the entire studio was shut down. The team tasked with taking Xbox's first-party into a bold new era released nothing.

If there were trophies for abysmal handling of studios, then the silver medal would go to the way Zenimax Online was hit by cuts, canceling a game that
Phil Spencer reportedly wouldnt stop playing in a meeting.

Is this all the runoff from the Activision Blizzard deal? Why did nobody stop to consider just how much acquiring the likes of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft would cost Xbox its soul? I even feel silly suggesting it, but if
you watch the Xbox On documentary that Microsoft released, theres a spirit in the early Xbox and the 360 thats been diluted down to layoff emails written with Copilot and entire studios of talented people being laid off by a
company chasing an AI pipedream.

Games to come?

Hardware is more expensive, studios are closing, projects are being canceled, and the best Xbox games are going just about everywhere else.

So, where does that put 2026? Its tough to say. Halo: Campaign Evolved brings the series to PlayStation, but after a very solid anniversary edition, do
Xbox fans need to play it again?

2026 marks Xboxs 25th anniversary, but depending on how the games hit, we may not see a 30th. Clockwork Revolution looks great, while Forza Horizon 6 feels like a surefire hit when it arrives.

Gears of War: E-Day will mark a prequel to the mainline games, but things
have been quiet in that regard. Does the fate of Xbox rest on Fable ? Hard to say, given how little weve seen of the long-delayed RPG.

It was one of the games most anticipated for this year before slipping, and
has seemingly been in development since before its reveal in 2020, before the current console generation had begun.

Its hard not to look at Xbox and feel as though its doing all it can to sink its own ship in recent months. Its not just a case of hoping 2026 is better than 2025 - its mandatory, because if not, it feels like Xbox will move into publishing full-time. ======================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.techradar.com/gaming/xbox-yaer-in-review-2025
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--- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
* Origin: Capitol City Online (42:17/1)