Earlier today, Microsoft held its latest Xbox Partner Preview livestream. Like Nintendo Direct Partner Showcases, this presentation is fully focused on third-party games coming to Xbox and PC over the next year or so. That means we didn't get a look at games like Halo: Campaign Evolved, but several known and new games showed up and impressed.
One particular standout was Tides of Annihilation, an upcoming action game from Chinese developer Eclipse Glow Games. We got to see an extended clip of gameplay footage of one of the game's boss fights during the Xbox Partner Preview, and it even outdid the flash and spectacle of games like Devil May Cry V and Final Fantasy XVI.
If you weren't able to tune into the Xbox Partner Preview live, or just don't want to sit through a half-hour showcase of games you may not be interested in, I'm here to help. I'm spotlighting the five most impressive-looking games from November 2025's Xbox Partner Preview so you know which titles to keep on your radar heading into 2025.
Tides of Annihilation
It's not coming to Xbox Game Pass
Tides of Annihilation is part of the new wave of Chinese action games launching in the wake of Black Myth: Wukong. That said, it's China's take on a European, as a Jennifer English-voiced hero named Gwendolyn as she searches for the Holy Grail in England. When enemies get in her way, she spars with them in combat, making use of a "Dual Frontline" gameplay system that allows her to summon allies to help her in battle.
The Xbox Partner Preview showing was less of a trailer and more of a gameplay video. It featured a boss fight against Tyronoe, The Ferryman, and it quickly escalates into a spectacle where Gwendolyn fights with summonable heroes in a mirror world and dodges moon-sized attacks being thrown at her.
Tides of Annihilation still does not have a release window, but the performance issues in an otherwise exhilarating trailer do suggest that this game will benefit from some more time for optimization.
- ESRB
- Rating Pending
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Number of Players
- Single-player
- Steam Deck Compatibility
- Unknown
WHERE TO PLAY
- Genre(s)
- Action, Adventure
Erosion
It's coming to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate during early access next Spring
There were a couple of voxel games in the Xbox Partner Preview, but Erosion stuck out the most. I just wrote about how we need more video game Westerns, and this one delivered. It's an isometric twin-stick shooter action game, with the twist being that every time you die, you respawn ten years in the future. We see this play out in the trailer as the main character interacts with his child when she's a kid, an adult, and dying of old age.
As I mentioned, I'm all for a new video game with Wild West aesthetics, even if Erosion is clearly blending some more supernatural elements into the experience. It looks like a lot of fun an left a strong first impression with this initial trailer, so I'm definitely going to keep an eye on it as it enters early access and Xbox Game Preview early next year.
Crowsworn
It's coming to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate
Hot off the heels of Hollow Knight: Silksong, Crowsworn has appeared to pick up the mantle for beautifully-animated upcoming Metroidvania games. While it had been previously crowdfunded, I had not heard of the game before today. It quickly rose up my most anticipated games list after seeing it during this show, just as Never Grave: The Witch and the Curse did during State of Play Japan.
Just like Hollow Knight: Silksong, Crowsworn tasks players with exploring a dark and dreary world where a lot of what they come across is eager to attack them. Unlike Hollow Knight, you play as a cool-looking crow, and there are some more unique gameplay set pieces where you do things like ride a mine cart. After seeing Crowsworn in action here, it has quickly rocketed up my list of most anticipated game.
Zoopunk
It's not coming to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at launch in 2027
Keeping up with the animal theme, I'd be remiss to not mention Zoopunk. This game had one of the more memorable trailers of the Xbox Partner Preview, as it essentially looks like a Soulslike with anthropomorphic animals. An Xbox Wire post does clarify that it's set in the same world as 2021's F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch, which makes sense because they are from the same Chinese developer, TiGames.
For some reason, this kind of action game really seems to be in vogue with Chinese game studios right now. I'm not complaining, though, as so far most games of this ilk have been quite entertaining. Zoopunk also reminded me of Star Fox Adventures, which I was not expecting when tuning into an Xbox show. While I'm not sure if this game will be great or not based on the gameplay shown off here, Zoopunk at least make a strong first impression.
Vampire Crawlers
Coming to Xbox Game Pass in 2026
Finally, I can admit I was not expecting to see Poncle's follow-up to Vampire Surviviors announced when I first started watching the Xbox Partner Preview. While Vampire Survivors took the top-down shoot 'em up roguelike formula to its maximalist limit, Vampire Crawlers does so with the deckbuilding dungeon-crawler formula.
It definitely seems to be getting a kick out of poking fun at the card-building roguelike genre, as Vampire Crawlers seems like it'll make players use their cards as quickly as possible in order to keep up with fighting all the enemies coming at them in a dungeon. Vampire Survivors basically started a whole new trend from the roguelike genre when it released. I'm curious if Vampire Crawlers will manage to do the same.
This was one of the more entertaining Xbox Partner Preview showcases
Microsoft has hosted a few Xbox Partner Preview showcases at this point, and today's was certainly one of the more entertaining ones. All five the games I just mentioned really stuck out to me, and there were other neat games I didn't even discuss. Horror game Total Chaos and Xbox ports of Dave the Diver and CloverPit even shadow-dropped during the show.
None of these games is a console exclusive, with the Xbox Partner Preview even going out of its way to show that some of these games are coming to PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2. That said, it was still a solid bunch of game reveals, and I'll at least consider playing the Game Pass Ultimate titles mentioned on my Xbox Series X.