Xbox Developer Direct to feature DOOM: The Dark Ages, South of Midnight, more

Xbox announced its January 2025 Developer Direct, a showcase highlighting upcoming games from Xbox’s first-party studios that should release in the next year. The show airs on Jan. 23, 2025, at 1 p.m. ET on all of Xbox’s social media channels, including YouTube and Twitch. These showcases usually run for approximately 50 minutes, though Xbox will host the video-on-demand on its YouTube channel after the initial airing ends.

In addition to iD Software’s planned full reveal of DOOM: The Dark Ages, the Developer Direct features a segment on South of Midnight, from We Happy Few developer Compulsion Games. South of Midnight weaves Black folklore and southern culture into a fantasy story that follows Hazel, a young woman trying to survive the aftermath of a hurricane. As the figures and nightmares from childhood tales come to life around her, Hazel must navigate myths and truths to uncover secrets about her family and put the world back in order.

Also making an appearance is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a turn-based RPG from new studio Sandfall Interactive that includes voice talent from Ben Starr (Final Fantasy XVI) and Jennifer English (Baldur’s Gate 3). The Sandfall team cites the likes of Golden Sun and Chrono Trigger as inspirations for the project, but rather than aiming to recreate retro classics, the studio hopes to innovate in the genre, with features such as parrying and a more involved set of menu-based commands.

Xbox said the showcase will close with the reveal of an unannounced project from one of Xbox’s studios broadcast from “a surprising location.”

All the games shown during the January 2025 Developer Direct will eventually launch for Xbox Series X|S and PC via the Windows Store. Xbox is pursuing a strategy of selectively releasing its first-party games for other platforms — including putting Indiana Jones and the Great Cirlce on PlayStation 5 in early 2025 — though the company hasn’t said whether any of these games will launch on PlayStation or Steam.