How to watch the Xbox Developer Direct 2025: Start time, what to expect, and everything you need to know – Windows Central
What you need to know about Xbox’s first showcase of 2025.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
The Xbox Developer Direct returns today, promising an exciting showcase of upcoming games for Xbox and PC. Here’s everything you need to know about when the showcase starts, how to watch, and what to expect from its short 45-minute run time.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 live-streamed 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.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.All the latest news, reviews, and guides for Windows and Xbox diehards.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.”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.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.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.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.Brendan Lowry is a Windows Central writer and Oakland University graduate with a burning passion for video games, of which he’s been an avid fan since childhood. He’s been writing for Team WC since the summer of 2017, and you’ll find him doing news, editorials, reviews, and general coverage on everything gaming, Xbox, and Windows PC. His favorite game of all time is probably NieR: Automata, though Elden Ring, Fallout: New Vegas, and Team Fortress 2 are in the running, too. When he’s not writing or gaming, there’s a good chance he’s either watching an interesting new movie or TV show or actually going outside for once. Follow him on X (Twitter).Windows Central is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.©
Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street,
New York,
NY 10036.
