Xbox’s 25th Birthday Was All Over the Place

Nov 15, 2026 - 17:06

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Xbox’s 25th Birthday Was All Over the Place

Published Nov 15, 2026, 9:00 AM EST

Oli Welsh has been covering the business and culture of video games for two decades. He started out writing for Edge and other publications (specializing in MMOs and Blizzard, as cover for his World of Warcraft playtime) before joining Eurogamer, where he worked for 14 years as reviews editor, deputy editor, and editor-in-chief; Eurogamer won many Games Media Awards during his tenure. At Polygon, he writes about film and TV as well as games, and provides news, analysis, and criticism on the entertainment we love and the industries that make it, all from his home in London. He loves role-playing, racing, puzzles, tactics, exploration, storytelling, Nintendo, mysteries, spies, fantasy, reality, cars, and classic cinema. He wanted to be a movie critic when he grew up, and now he’s definitely grown up, and occasionally is one. He considers this a win.

But let's not forget how much Microsoft has done for console gaming

25 original Xbox games and some PC hardware

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It's Xbox's 25th birthday! It's been another chaotic and bruising year for Microsoft's gaming platform: new boss, loads of layoffs, Halo going to Activision, next console might cost $1,800. But also: Exclusives are back, Gears of War is back, Call of Duty is good again, Forza is massive. It's not all bad. Is it?

It may be that not a lot of people at Xbox feel like celebrating right now. But it's a big birthday, which means it's time to put a brave face on. The Xbox team seems aware that full-bore triumphalism is not warranted now, but also that the fans — and the brand itself, honestly — do deserve a little something. So a series of fan events kicked off in Seattle this week, and Xbox had some announcements to share, too.

Or, more accurately, CEO Asha Sharma, who seems determined to make her personal X account Xbox's sole PR mouthpiece, had some announcements to share. She began, inauspiciously,with a garbled and ill-judged manifesto that seemed to ominously skirt an AI-forward future for gaming. But things got better after that.

BJ Blazkowicz standing over a pile of Nazi helmets in Wolfenstein art.

The news was slender, but it was good. Doom developer Id Software is making a new game. Given Sharma's relentless focus on the top franchises, it's probably another Doom, but that's fine; what is Id better at than making Doom games? (Did you know that Doom: The Dark Ages expansion Revelations is the sixth best game of the year, according to Metacritic?) Doom may not have a historical connection to Xbox, but it is at least spiritually Xboxy: space marines, monsters, and splatter.

We get a new Wolfenstein, too, and new play modes for The Dark Ages and Halo: Campaign Evolved, and a lifetime playtime summary for fans, and free Xbox anniversary stuff in COD and Candy Crush and Minecraft, which are all on other platforms, but maybe that’s the point. Find players where they are — and show them Xbox branding.

Sharma also shared a new gameplay trailer for Fable, the return of a fantasy RPG series that Xbox fans hold particularly close to their hearts. The trailer got a mixed reception; some fans gave it a hard time for being too gloomy and exposition-heavy, and wrung their hands over Fable's future, as if Playground hasdn't shared plenty of colorful and whimsical footage already. This has always been the fate of new developers stepping in on a series created by someone else. It was an odd mood for a birthday party, though.

Fable Gamescom 2026 screenshot croossbow

Fortunately, Microsoft stepped up with something suitably nostalgic that also represents Xbox at its best. The tireless backward compatibility team soldiers on, bringing 25 more original Xbox games to PC, including stone-cold classics like The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, TimeSplitters 2, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It's a welcome reminder that Xbox's heroic push to make Xbox 360 games play on Xbox One, to which Sony had no answer, set the standard of persistent software catalogues by which the entire gaming console industry is now judged.

That in turn is a reminder of the brilliant 360 and everything it did to safely and smoothly bridge console gaming's walled gardens with the untamed wilds of the internet, and to kickstart the indie scene with Xbox Live Arcade. Xbox really has given us a lot in the past 25 years. Times are certainly tough now. But it seems right to offer an optimistic birthday wish for 25 more.

Plus this: