First Xbox Developer Direct showcase of 2025

A couple weeks ago Xbox announced the first Developer Direct of the year, and that day is today. Zeroing-in on major upcoming Xbox releases from some of its closest third-party development partners, the Developer Direct showcase is set to give us a look at more than a few major upcoming releases, most of which likely landing this year, and it all starts very soon. 

Xbox Developer Direct showcase – January 2025

As per usual, Xbox has (mostly) told us already what we will being seeing as part of today’s showcase – DOOM: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 – but there are still some mysteries to behold. 

We can expect an inside look at all of those titles coming directly from the mouths of the folks that are making them, but as you’ll know from our launch coverage of the event as well as the glaring pictorial omission on the key art above, there is (at least) one (likely only one) title we don’t know about yet. 

The only real hint Xbox has served up thus far on the mystery game is to say that we will be visiting “a surprise location” to take a look at what sounds like an entirely new, un-revealed game – more specifically “another studio’s brand new game.” This is hopefully referring to something no one has even heard about yet, but we won’t have to wait for much longer to find out now. 

We can indeed expect gameplay footage and likely an even more in-depth look at all three of the games we do already know about, as well as some release date information. Pending the mystery game here, DOOM: The Dark Ages is a likely highlight for most gamers on the list and we are very much expecting to get a solid release date for this one – it, in fact, did apparently already leak in a now taken down post that suggested it will hit store shelves on May 15, 2025. 

Either way, the show is set to go live down below starting at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m ET and we will be following along with you as well as providing full-res footage as it becomes available. Enjoy!