Xbox Games

Game Pass: The Numbers Behind the Platform

Xbox Game Pass reached 40 million subscribers in Q1 2026, up from 37 million at the same point in 2025. This growth happened alongside Microsoft adding 160+ games to the service in 2025, including 85 new titles and 28 day-one releases. The most downloaded Game Pass title of 2025 was Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from MachineGames, which logged 8 million downloads through the service alone — a figure that doesn't include direct purchases.

The economic logic of Game Pass has shifted how players approach Xbox. Rather than evaluating each game as a purchase decision, subscribers sample broadly and invest deeply in the titles that resonate. This changes the risk profile of trying something new entirely. A game you'd hesitate to spend $70 on becomes easy to try when it's already available through your subscription.

The Studio Roster After Acquisitions

Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax Media (parent company of Bethesda) closed in 2021, and the full Activision Blizzard King acquisition completed in 2023. The combined studio roster is extraordinary: Bethesda Game Studios (Elder Scrolls, Fallout), id Software (Doom, Quake), MachineGames (Wolfenstein, Indiana Jones), Arkane Studios (Dishonored, Prey), Obsidian Entertainment (Fallout: New Vegas, Avowed, The Outer Worlds), Double Fine Productions (Psychonauts), Ninja Theory (Hellblade, Senua's Saga), Playground Games (Forza Horizon), Rare (Sea of Thieves, Everwild), and Insomniac — wait, that's Sony — but the Xbox list alone is remarkable.

Avowed, released in 2025, was the first major original IP to emerge from Obsidian under Microsoft ownership, offering a first-person RPG set in the Pillars of Eternity universe that drew natural comparisons to The Elder Scrolls. Its reception demonstrated that the acquired studios were maintaining their creative identities under Microsoft's umbrella.

Xbox Series X/S: The Hardware Picture

The Xbox Series X remains competitive as a piece of hardware — it matches the PS5's CPU and exceeds it in raw GPU performance on paper. The Series S provides a more affordable, disc-less entry point that makes the ecosystem accessible at a lower hardware cost. Both consoles support Smart Delivery, ensuring players get the best available version of their games automatically.

The hardware hasn't been the story of this Xbox generation, though. Microsoft's strategy has increasingly been platform-agnostic: most Xbox exclusive games also release on PC on day one, and Game Pass spans both Xbox and PC. This blurs the definition of an "Xbox exclusive" in ways that are genuinely confusing but also mean a PC player doesn't need Xbox hardware to access much of the Xbox library.

Key Franchises and Their State in 2026

Halo's future under 343 Industries (now Halo Studios) remains one of the most discussed questions in Xbox gaming. Forza Horizon 5 continues to receive content updates and remains one of the highest-rated racing games of the current generation. Sea of Thieves has been transformed from a thin launch product into a rich live service game. Hellblade: Senua's Saga brought Ninja Theory's psychological horror ambitions to a new scale.

The Elder Scrolls VI and Fable (reboot from Playground Games) remain the most anticipated unannounced-by-release-date titles in the Xbox portfolio. Both are expected to be major tentpole releases when they arrive.

Bethesda Under Microsoft: The First Wave

The first major Bethesda release under Microsoft's ownership was Starfield in 2023 — a new IP from Bethesda Game Studios for the first time since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in 2011. Its reception was mixed compared to expectations: strong opening sales and a dedicated player base, but criticism around the open world structure and exploration design compared to previous Bethesda games. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from MachineGames was the more unanimously praised 2024 Bethesda-stable release, winning narrative awards at The Game Awards and logging 8 million Game Pass downloads.

The more significant upcoming Bethesda releases — The Elder Scrolls VI and a new Fallout — remain unannounced for release windows. The Elder Scrolls VI was announced in 2018 and has been in early development for years. Given Bethesda's development timelines and Microsoft's stated preference for quality over speed, both titles are likely to arrive later in the decade. When they do, they will be among the most anticipated PC and Xbox releases in history.

Call of Duty and the Activision Catalogue

Microsoft's Activision Blizzard King acquisition brought Call of Duty, Overwatch, Diablo, World of Warcraft, and the King mobile catalogue under the Xbox umbrella. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 launched on Game Pass day one in 2024 — a first for the franchise — and demonstrated the subscriber value the catalogue can deliver at launch. Diablo IV received significant expansion content. The integration of Activision's live service games into the Game Pass ecosystem gives the service a depth of live content that Nintendo's and Sony's subscription offers don't match.

Exploring Xbox Games on pcforest.net

The Xbox listings here cover Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S releases, rated by critic consensus sourced from IGDB. Because Game Pass availability changes month to month, the listings focus on the games themselves — their quality, genre, and release context — rather than current subscription status. Sorting by rating surfaces genuinely acclaimed titles across the full Xbox ecosystem; filtering by year shows how the platform's output has evolved through and after the major acquisition period. The best Xbox games — whether from Bethesda, Obsidian, Playground, or third parties — hold up to comparison with any platform's output when evaluated purely on quality.