Xbox’s 25th Birthday Was All Over the Place

Xbox marked its 25th anniversary with fan events and a set of gaming announcements, despite a difficult year for Microsoft’s gaming business. The celebrations were uneven, but they highlighted both new games and Xbox’s longstanding role in building a broad, lasting games library.

The announcements included new games from Doom developer id Software and the Wolfenstein series, additional modes for Doom: The Dark Ages and Halo: Campaign Evolved, and a new Fable trailer. Microsoft also added 25 original Xbox games to PC, including Morrowind, TimeSplitters 2 and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The article argues that Xbox’s backwards compatibility work and Xbox Live Arcade helped shape console gaming, offering reasons for cautious optimism about its future.