It may not have the prestige of a Nintendo Direct or PlayStation showcase, but it’s strangely inspiring to see that Microsoft is still plugging away at this whole gaming thing, despite the many recent missteps. Last night’s Xbox Partner Preview gave us a glimpse at what’s in store for the Xbox hardware, though importantly, from third-party developers. That means no Elder Scrolls, Halo, or Starfield announcements. Whew.
We’ve spared you the minute-long Aston Martin ad for 007 First Light, for instance, instead reserving the slots on this list for the biggest and most interesting reveals of the night, of which only a few grabbed our attention. You can check out the entire Xbox Partner Preview over here if you’re interested in checking out the roughly 30-minute stream.
CloverPit looks like our new addiction
CloverPit can satiate that desire for just one more spin (no, really, just one more) without any of the financial risk. There’s just one problem: your life literally depends on it. Players find themselves locked in a room and must spin the slots to pay off their debts, or risk plunging into the depths below. Better yet, CloverPit landed on Xbox One and the Xbox Series X/S yesterday. You’ll get it free with Game Pass Ultimate, too.
Will the real Slim Shady please stand up so we can get a good shot?
Unless your name is Diddy, you’ve probably got no beef with Marshall Mathers, AKA Eminem, in the real world. Whatever your feelings toward the rapper, players of Hitman: World of Assassination will have the chance to make the real Slim Shady take a seat in the dirt as part of an elusive target update, arriving on 1 December 2025.
Dave the Diver hits Xbox, gets new In the Jungle DLC
Dave the Diver has frolicked on other consoles for some time now, but it’s finally ready to play nice with Xbox. Landing yesterday on the Xbox Series X/S and Xbox on PC, if you haven’t sunk at least a couple of hours into this RPG that’s just dripping with style and substance, now’s your chance. Oh, and we also got a peek at the upcoming In the Jungle DLC, which sees Dave ditching his diving gear and exploring on land for once.
Reanimal is all about the co-op horrors
“A cooperative horror game from the creators of Little Nightmares” is all we needed to hear before we were on board with Reanimal. Players step into the shoes of a brother and sister pairing, on a twisted adventure to escape their home and save their buddies along the way — all while dodging monsters and uncovering secrets. Reanimals comes to the Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC in February 2026.
Vampire Crawlers keeps the vampire community alive
From the mind of Poncle comes Vampire Crawlers — you know, the guy who made Vampire Survivors? That alone should be enough to sell you on this brand-new (but still Vampire-focused) entry that takes a first-person approach to the roguelike, deck-building dungeon-crawler on display. There’s no telling when this one will be ready. Xbox says it’ll be out “soon,” while the trailer tells us it’ll be out when the devs think it’s ready. When it does, it’ll land on the Xbox Series X/S, PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC sometime in 2026 (probably).
Zoopunk = Biomutant? We hope not
We want to like Zoopunk. We really do. The premise looks interesting enough — you play as a “ragtag group of sky-faring, traditional-weapon-wielding anthropomorphic animals”, but it doesn’t make up for the somewhat weak-looking gameplay. We’ll give the action game from TiGames a shot when it arrives in 2027, but we can’t help but feel like we’ve got another Biomutant on our hands.
