Xbox Partner Showcase revealed — Every single game is Xbox Play Anywhere, set to go live on November 20

Xbox is ramping up its Winter showcase season with a new marketing beat, slated for November 20.

A couple of weeks ago, we exclusively reported that Microsoft has a November Partner Preview event, with a heavy slant on Xbox Play Anywhere (XPA) titles. In fact, every single game at this event will be XPA-certified. Microsoft has been pushing Xbox Play Anywhere heavily over the past few years, as it approaches unifying its development tools between Xbox and PC.

Developers who certify their games for Xbox Play Anywhere provide cross-save, and cross-buy capabilities to customers. Developers who sell their games via Xbox PC also enjoy a bigger cut of the revenue, although it does require them to maintain codebase parity between the different versions.

[4K] Xbox Partner Preview | November 2025 - YouTube

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Microsoft revealed the event officially earlier today on the Xbox Wire blog, stating, "We’re excited to reveal that the next Xbox Partner Preview – our broadcast that shines a light on upcoming games from our talented third-party partners – is coming this Thursday, November 20. This show will include news on upcoming games from partners including IO Interactive, Tencent and THQ Nordic, plus some brand-new reveals and Game Pass announcements.".

The Xbox Partner Preview event will be streamed live on Thursday, November 20, at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK across Xbox's main channels on YouTube and Twitch.

Windows Central sources suggest this will focus on known titles for Xbox, although there could be some heavy hitting surprises. Silent Hill 2, for example, was recently outed via the Microsoft Store back end as launching on November 21. So it stands to reason that Silent Hill 2 will have some kind of big shadow drop at the event. We also have The Game Awards coming up, where I've heard Microsoft has some major marketing beats for some of its properties. Microsoft also typically has a Developer Direct event in January, where it features deeper looks at upcoming games, usually from first party — but occasionally third-party partners as well.

Both games, and platform hints too

Devices like the Xbox Ally are changing the way games are played on the Xbox ecosystem. Microsoft's "This is an Xbox" campaign has aimed to highlight the fact that you can access Xbox content on a plurality of devices. The campaign has been the topic of some ridicule, though. The campaign de-emphasizes Xbox Series X|S hardware, which has endured near free-fall sales declines since the pandemic rush.

Microsoft has its work cut out to convince core gamers that this strategy is going to be a long-term success. Scepticism of the Xbox strategy has hit an all-time high, and Microsoft hasn't done a great deal to waylay concerns. Price hikes, strategy changes, and a big retreat from community engagement showcases a different "Xbox" than people have become accustomed to. Despite all of it, the Xbox platform is still here, and still seeing huge developer support.

Microsoft landed a big win when it won Epic Games' Fortnite to the Xbox PC app, meaning that Fortnite PC gamers no longer have to install the entire Epic Games Launcher to access the game. The Xbox app comes with Windows 11 as standard, and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate also now gives benefits for Fortnite players across PC and Xbox consoles as well.

Xbox Play Anywhere has been a great band-aid to help Xbox console users transition their gaming to other devices, but the Steam Machine is throwing a wrench in the works. Valve's Steam platform is essentially a vision of where Microsoft would like to take Xbox Play Anywhere, albeit with years of maturity on top. Better dev tools, more open publishing criteria, and a library with thousands of games already "Play Anywhere" via Steam Machines, PC, and NVIDIA GeForce Now — represents a significant challenge to Microsoft's strategy. Xbox of course has Call of Duty, Fortnite, Minecraft, and Roblox within its umbrella, as well as full Windows compatibility. So I'd say it's too early to count them out just yet.

The Xbox November Partner Showcase should give us a glimpse into how much support Microsoft is winning from developers for its Xbox Play Anywhere strategy, when it all goes live on November 20, 2025.

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