With the release of Avowed just days away, Xbox is set to kick off its most important year of the current generation

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Opinion | Xbox is making a massive statement of intent with its packed spring release schedule, but all eyes are on Obsidian right now

Avowed screenshot showing the lush fantasy realm called The Living Lands, with the protagonist looking at a lush cave powered by magical energy
(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

If you're willing to pay a premium, the release of Avowed is now just a few days away. An early access launch designed to coincide with Valentine's Day, leaving fans of Obsidian RPGs with a choice between an expensive night out on the town, arguing over lost table reservations, or an expensive night in on the couch, arguing over decisions made during character creation.

Whether you choose to pay $90 to access Avowed on February 14 or hold out until its wide release on PC, Xbox Series X, and Game Pass on February 18, it's destined to be a monumental few days for Microsoft Gaming. The launching point for what is undoubtedly the most important year for Xbox in a generation. And let's be honest here, it kind of has to be.

For a while there, it really did feel as if Microsoft Gaming was genuinely at risk of collapsing under all of the weight it is shouldering. Perhaps that's why Xbox is going all in on 2025. The upcoming Xbox games in the spring release window alone is electrifying, a reminder of why so many of us migrated to the platform to begin with. What we're looking at here is Xbox reinvesting in the core – the Xbox Game Studios group delivering expressive RPG, FPS, and action-adventure titles, the lineup bolstered by ambitious experiments from talented third-party publishers.

Xbox's 2025 in brief

A demon holding a sword charging at the Doom Slayer during the Doom: The Dark Ages trailer.

(Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

The release of Obsidian's Avowed in February is followed by Compulsion Games' South of Midnight on April 8 and Doom: The Dark Ages on May 15 from id Software. Three ambitious, beautiful, and decadently-crafted experiences that are shouldering the burden of building momentum for Xbox in a challenging landscape. Sprinkled throughout the spring are other excellent additions to the Game Pass library; Rebellion's Atomfall on March 27 and Sandfall Interactive's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 on April 24 undoubtedly the standouts.

Looking beyond the summer, Playground Games' Fable and Obsidian's The Outer Worlds 2 have tentative 2025 windows, while The Coalition's Gears of War: E-Day and The Initiative's Perfect Dark reboot are also rumored to launch within the financial year. It really does feel like this is the moment every Xbox owner has been waiting years for – the true result of Microsoft's big studio acquisition spree, which started in earnest all the way back in 2018. I don't know about you, but this massive investment in key genres (across both new IP and legacy franchise revivals) is starting to rekindle fond memories of the original Xbox and Xbox 360 eras.

Now, with that all said, I am trying to temper my own expectations. We need only look at the quality gulf between Redfall and Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2, Starfield and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, to be reminded that Xbox Game Studios has a tendency to be wildly inconsistent in a way that output from the PlayStation Studios group isn't (Concord notwithstanding). There's even less room for error in that respect now, with so many of Xbox's first-party releases primed for release on PlayStation – Series X/S sales are reportedly less than half of the PS5, so key would-be exclusives are about to get unprecedented exposure.

Doom: The Dark Ages is confirmed to be a simultaneous release across both platforms, and it's expected that a great many of these other Xbox games will eventually land on PS5 before the year is up. I'd suspect that any success for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and Forza Horizon 5 (two crown jewels in the Series X lineup) within the PlayStation ecosystem later this year will only expedite Xbox's drive for platform ubiquity. Could Halo or Gears really make the jump to PS5? It's not out of the realms of possibility.

Whether Xbox's drive onto rival platforms is ultimately judged as a success or failure is a story that will unfold gradually all throughout 2025. For now the focus should be on Avowed. As the first major release from Xbox Game Studios this year, it's bound to set the tone for the year to come. If Obsidian has a winner on its hands (and we've certainly been left impressed by what we've played of it so far), then momentum will only begin to build. If it lands with a thud, pressure will begin to build around South of Midnight and Doom: The Dark Ages to demonstrate that Xbox is able to rise to meet the moment.

Josh West
Josh West
Editor-in-Chief, GamesRadar+

Josh West is Editor-in-Chief of GamesRadar+. He has over 18 years of experience in both online and print journalism, and was awarded a BA (Hons) in Journalism and Feature Writing. Josh has contributed to world-leading gaming, entertainment, tech, music, and comics brands, including games™, Edge, Retro Gamer, SFX, 3D Artist, Metal Hammer, and Newsarama. In addition, Josh has edited and written books for Hachette and Scholastic, and worked across the Future Games Show as an Assistant Producer. He specializes in video games and entertainment coverage, and has provided expert comment for outlets like the BBC and ITV. In his spare time, Josh likes to play FPS games and RPGs, practice the bass guitar, and reminisce about the film and TV sets he worked on as a child actor.