Xbox Game Pass seems to have an incredible lineup for late 2025

Tom’s Take —

Xbox Game Pass could be cooking up a monster line-up with Fable and Gears of War E-Day

• Fable and The Outer Worlds 2 have been given 2025 release windows, while a new Call of Duty is all but guaranteed
• Gears of War: E-Day is rumored to launch in 2025
• Undead Labs has moved its whole team onto State of Decay 3

As Kes pointed out last week, Xbox Game Pass has a legendary line-up for early 2025. While subscribers will be able to dive into Obsidian Entertainment’s RPG Avowed next month, you can also look forward to Compulsion’ Games’ action-adventure game South of Midnight in April, followed by id Software’s Doom: The Dark Ages in May.

Mixed in with those first-party treats, we have some third-party bangers on the way too, such as Rebellion’s survival-action game Atomfall in March and Sandfall Interactive’s turn-based RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 in April. But what about the currently dry second half of 2025? Well, it could be just as juicy.

While I’m buzzing for many of the upcoming Game Pass drops — Doom: The Dark Ages, Atomfall, and Avowed have been hot on my radar for some time — I’m equally excited about the potential line-up we could see arrive later on in the year.

So far, just Fable and The Outer Worlds 2 are first-party Xbox games confirmed to be launching in 2025, neither of which have narrowed down their release windows. Though, it’s unlikely we’ll see them this side of Summer Game Fest 2025.

Fable is in development at Playground Games and everything we know about Fable suggests that it’ll be a reboot for the legendary franchise, offering similar world-altering choices, dark threats, and British humor we’ve come to love about the games. I was a big fan of the original trilogy, and I’m excited to see what Playground does with the franchise.

As for Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds 2, the first-person shooter RPG was given a 2025 release window during last year’s Game Awards. It looks just as chaotic as its predecessor, offering gorgeous environments to explore that just pop with color and detail, while a quirky cast of characters will likely keep us plenty entertained when we’re not out shooting things.

Let’s not forget Microsoft’s newest poster child, Call of Duty, either. Even without an announcement, we’re all but guaranteed to get a new COD in October. Black Ops 6 was the “biggest Call of Duty release” in the franchise’s history, according to Activision, so Microsoft will likely be looking for some Game Pass magic once again this year.

Now for Gears of War: E-Day and State of Decay 3, neither of which have release windows yet. The Coalition will be taking us all the way back to the start of Mankind’s war with the Locust, 14 years before the events of the first Gears game. News has been quiet on the E-Day front since its announcement last year, but People Can Fly recently revealed that it’s supporting The Coalition in developing the highly-anticipated game.

We don’t currently have a release window for this one, but last year The Verge’s Tom Warren reported that The Coalition was targeting a 2025 launch ahead of Playground Games’ Fable.

As for State of Decay 3, well, it’s safe to say that it’s high on my list of games I’m dying to play in 2025 — I just can’t get enough of slaughtering zombies! Everything we know about State of Decay 3 so far sounds awesome, as Undead Labs has said it’s set “years after the zombie apocalypse,” so resources are running dry and the survivors are creating their makeshift gear. The team has worked with Obsidian Entertainment to improve the multiplayer too, so it should feel more like a shared world experience instead of a “ride along.”

Undead Labs ended development on State of Decay 2 late last year, moving the entire team onto the third game. While it doesn’t mean we’ll see State of Decay 3 launch this year, I’m hoping the team is adding the finishing touches as the game was announced almost five years ago.

I thought I’d throw in an honorable mention for Ark 2 while I’m here, even though it’s a third-party title. Studio Wildcard initially announced that Ark 2 would arrive in 2023, before delaying it to the end of 2024. Since then… nothing. We currently have no idea where Ark 2 is at. Perhaps we’ll see Ark 2 arrive before the end of the year. Perhaps.