When does the Xbox Developer_Direct 2025 start?
The 2025 edition of Microsoft’s annual Xbox Developer_Direct event is scheduled to start at on Thursday, January 23 at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. GMT, at which point the show will be livestreamed and available to watch globally. It’s expected to last around 45 minutes or so, as this event is much smaller than the larger Xbox Games Showcases that the company holds in the summer.
How to watch the Xbox Developer_Direct 2025
The Xbox Developer_Direct 2025 will primarily be available to watch on a variety of different global Xbox channels across YouTube, Twitch, and Facebook. You’ll find all of these linked in the list below for easy access.
Additionally, the show will be livestreamed on Valve’s PC gaming client Steam, as well as on various official Xbox and Bethesda channels on regional platforms like the Chinese site Bilibili. Note that Microsoft’s YouTube stream will support watching in 4K with a smooth framerate of 60 FPS, making that the ideal viewing method if you’ve got a strong internet connection and want to enjoy max visual quality.
English closed captioning will be toggleable on the YouTube stream, while other languages will be available through regional Xbox channels. Specifically, Microsoft says that there will be options for the following languages: Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, French, Canadian French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Castilian Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.
On top of that, those with impaired vision or hearing will be able to enjoy versions of the show with Audio Descriptions (AD) on the Xbox YouTube channel, American Sign Language (ASL) on that channel as well as the Xbox sign language Twitch channel, and British Sign Language (BSL) on the Xbox On YouTube channel.
If you’re not able to catch the event live, Microsoft will publish a full recap of the show immediately after it ends that you’ll be able to read on Xbox Wire, with localized Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, LATAM Spanish, and Japanese versions of the article coming later. Each individual game shown will get a dedicated Xbox Wire article as well.
What should you expect from the Xbox Developer_Direct 2025?
Like previous shows, this year’s Xbox Developer_Direct will focus on four titles coming to Xbox Series X|S consoles, Windows PC, and Microsoft’s popular Xbox Game Pass service later in 2025. This includes DOOM: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, along with a fourth mystery “brand new” game.
“Presented by the game creators themselves, Developer_Direct offers an in-depth look at upcoming titles, how they’re being created, and who’s creating them,” reads Microsoft’s official Xbox Wire page about the event. “We’ll visit Compulsion Games in Montreal, Canada to learn more about South of Midnight, head to Montpellier, France to see Sandfall Interactive for a look at Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, stop by the legendary id Studios in Richardson, Texas to check in on DOOM: The Dark Ages, and visit a surprise location to see another studio’s brand new game.”
DOOM: The Dark Ages
Fans can look forward to a “full game reveal” of the first-person shooter DOOM: The Dark Ages during the presentation. The Dark Ages is a medieval-themed prequel to DOOM 2016 and 2020’s DOOM Eternal, and like those two titles, it’s being made by id Software; the famed developer is known for creating the Wolfenstein and DOOM franchises, along with Quake and Rage.
South of Midnight
A deep dive on South of Midnight — “a third person action-adventure game set in the American Deep South” — will also be shown during the livestream, with Contrast and We Happy Few studio Compulsion Games planning to show more of the upcoming 2025 title off. In it, you’ll play as a woman named Hazel who has to piece together her family’s past and its mysterious connections to dark Southern Folklore.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
We’ll also get a closer look at Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a new RPG built on Unreal Engine 5 that spices up the turn-based nature of JRPG mechanics with “real-time actions.” Specifically, developer Sandfall Interactive will cover the studio’s creation of the game in detail, while also going over how its story and its vibrant Belle Époque France-inspired fantasy world.
… And one more surprise
To cap things off, Microsoft will “visit a surprise location to see another studio’s brand new game.” Many speculated that this might be the rumored The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion remake or more of a previously announced title such as Fable, but VP of Games Marketing at Microsoft Aaron Greenberg confirmed on social media that it’s a “surprise unannounced game.” Ultimately, what this mystery game could be is anyone’s guess, but I’m certainly excited to learn more about it during the show.
