Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, made the announcement at the conclusion of Sunday's Xbox Games Showcase that 2026 will mark the 25th anniversary of Xbox. He stated that the Fable reboot, Gears of War: E-Day, a new Forza game, and "the return of a classic that’s been with us since the beginning"—presumably Halo, unless there is a plan to bring back Fuzion Frenzy—will be released to commemorate this milestone. It was a familiar refrain: "This year is great; look at all this stuff we have," but "that's going to be The One" next year, next year. Isn't it frequently? In fact, the Xbox showcase was excellent. There was a spread of varied and exciting titles from Microsoft’s giant army of game studios, including InXile’s Clockwork Revolution and the surprise reveal of Double Fine’s sentient-lighthouse adventure Keeper. With Atlus on the Persona 4 remake and the Witcher refugees at Rebel Wolves on their Witcher-but-he's-a-vampire game, The Blood of Dawnwalker, there were smart partnerships. The ROG Xbox Ally X handheld partnership with Asus was perhaps the smartest of all. It allows Microsoft to lend Xbox's marketing and branding power to expand the Windows handheld market and reinforce its message that "everything is an Xbox" while avoiding the costly and historically doomed business of engaging in a straight fight with Nintendo. Therefore, it didn't really matter that all of those Xbox fan favorites will be released next year, that Blizzard didn't release anything this time, or that Bethesda didn't release much at all. Even a quiet year has a new Doom, three Obsidian Entertainment games, and the obligatory Call of Duty thanks to Microsoft's unprecedented game publishing scale. Life is good when you’re the king of all you survey.
But you can't shake the feeling that something is wrong when even your friendly neighborhood monopolist ends its annual show on a note of deferred gratification. When the announcements made at Summer Game Fest and PlayStation's most recent State of Play are taken into account, the trends become apparent. The back half of 2025 is looking a little sparse, still. Additionally, a significant number of AAA studios worldwide have gone very quiet. Could this be a result of Grand Theft Auto 6? It’s part of it, surely. Originally announced for release in late 2025, Rockstar’s behemoth reportedly had rival publishers scrambling to give it a wide berth, even if everyone knew its eventual delay to 2026 was likely. Because of this, it was anticipated that Summer Game Fest would see a flurry of fall release dates, but none of them actually came to pass. The only exception was Microsoft, which on Sunday announced October release dates for three Xbox Game Studios games: The Outer Worlds 2, Ninja Gaiden 4, and Keeper. Factor in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, which isn’t dated yet but is probably headed for early November, and Microsoft is essentially propping up the late 2025 game release calendar in the company of nobody but Nintendo, which has its big cross-generation pairing of Pokémon Legends Z-A and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Sony had already taken care to ensure that its 2025 titles, Death Stranding 2, Ghost of Ytei, and Marathon, would all be released by the beginning of October before GTA 6 was delayed. There was talk that the next Battlefield game might be waiting in the wings to seize the opportunity presented by GTA’s delay, but if it is ready enough for a 2025 release, EA has yet to give any indication of that.
After Rockstar vacated the release schedule, it makes sense that only Microsoft would have the production capacity to fill it (and Nintendo would not care which way it went). Video game development is like an oil tanker that cannot be turned around or sped up in response to a commercial opportunity at the AAA level, as well as many other levels. But Microsoft simply has so many studios now that it will nearly always have something that’s ready to release.
Overall, though, the past week has been light on major announcements and updates from the world’s biggest studios. Only Capcom and Sega saved a weak Summer Game Fest by bringing a new Resident Evil and the full reveal of the intriguing Stranger Than Heaven from Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio. Sony wisely decided to downsize and play the hardcore card because they had nothing new to say about Insomniac's Wolverine and Naughty Dog's Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. It revealed a new Lumines and the long-awaited Final Fantasy Tactics remaster, and closed out on a fighting game by Arc System Works, of all things. It worked: Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls drips cred, looks sick, and fielded what might be the best trailer of the week.
However, aside from Capcom and Sega, all of the major players—Insomniac, Naughty Dog, Blizzard, and Bethesda—were absent. Nothing from Ubisoft or EA’s internal studios. Not much from Square Enix. Nothing, despite some fevered speculation about the location of Gabe Newell’s yacht, from Valve. At an Unreal Engine showcase, CD Projekt Red showed The Witcher 4, but they later clarified that it wasn't The Witcher 4.
It doesn't mean the world will end. A solid show from Xbox and a fun show from PlayStation is a good result in a week that also, lest we forget, featured the launch of a new Nintendo console. In addition, despite the absence of GTA 6, there is still a lot to anticipate this year, including the release of Hollow Knight: Silksong. However, the sluggishness of top-tier game development becomes increasingly apparent during the industry's customary self-celebration week in June. Studios that have always relied on tentpoles to support the extravagant spectacle can now only produce one game every five years or so—for Rockstar and others, it's more like seven years. There is simply not enough hype to maintain the feverish heights of the previous E3s. I'm not implying that Summer Game Fest ringmaster Geoff Keighley regrets his decision to step in and save E3. (Maybe he did for a brief moment when one developer made the decision to troll the SGF audience wearing a Make FPS Great Again hat.) However, it is now a buyer's market for circus stalls, and we are all getting used to waiting a lot more. Nevermind. Maybe next year.