Xbox turns 25: id Software confirms its next game, Fable shows four minutes of quest gameplay, and Halo gets Firefight

Xbox spent its 25th birthday handing out news, and a few pieces of it actually matter. Microsoft’s gaming boss Asha Sharma and the studios posted a string of announcements through the day, from a brand-new id Software project to a fresh look at Fable. Here’s what was confirmed.

id Software is already on its next game

The headline for shooter fans came almost as an aside. Sharma posted that Slaughter Mode arrives in Doom: The Dark Ages | Revelations on Monday, “and the team is already working on its next game.” id Software replied with a little more: it’s “a new game from our teams in Texas and Frankfurt, with game direction once again by Hugo Martin,” and “it’ll be some time before we’re ready to share more.”

That’s the whole official statement. id never said the word Doom, and nobody has named a title, genre or platform. GameSpot notes most people assume it’s another Doom, and points out that Tom Warren reported back in July that id was in the early stages of one. GameSpot also called out the awkward timing: this comes after the Xbox “reset” layoffs took about half of id’s staff, which we covered at the end of October.

Fable shows a real quest

Playground Games released a four-minute quest gameplay walkthrough of its Fable reboot. The Hero of Briar Hill heads into Deepwood with Arden, a local Hero, to work out why strange magic is troubling Oakshire, and finds the forest’s natural magic corrupted by “an outside force.” Fable launches February 23, 2027 on Xbox Series X|S, PC and PS5, and on Game Pass. RPG Site notes pre-orders are live and the Premium Edition gets up to five days of early access.

Halo gets Firefight, and old Xbox games land on PC

Xbox Wire confirmed that Firefight, Halo’s four-player co-op wave-survival mode, comes to Halo: Campaign Evolved as a free update this winter, with new maps. Xbox FanFest attendees get to play it first tonight.

Microsoft also added 21 more original Xbox games to backward compatibility on PC, bringing that library to 25. The list is heavy on Star Wars, including both Knights of the Old Republic games, Republic Commando, Jedi Academy and the original Battlefront pair, plus Morrowind, TimeSplitters 2 and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect. Four original Xbox games are also getting achievements for the first time, with more planned.

PPR take

The id news is the one I keep coming back to. Hugo Martin directed Doom (2016), Eternal and The Dark Ages, so a new project under him is a good sign that the studio’s core creative leadership survived the cuts. But let’s be honest about what we got: two sentences on X and “some time” before we hear more. With half the studio gone, I’d expect this one to take a while, and I’d rather they take it than rush. Fable looking like an actual RPG with quests and a mystery to chase is a relief after years of short teasers, and February isn’t far off. And getting KOTOR, Republic Commando and TimeSplitters 2 playable on PC through official channels is the kind of preservation move I want more of. If you still own those digitally, it’s worth a look tonight.