As part of its ongoing efforts to unify game development tools across Windows and Xbox, Microsoft has released a new video showcasing some of the new tools that developers will have access to as part of a major October 2025 update (via Windows Central). The video, which you can check out below, confirms a host of new features, including a new GameInput API, PlayFab Game Saves, and Xbox Game Package Manager, among others.
GameInput API is a new unified way that developers can deisgn their games to be playable on controllers as well as keyboard and mouse. The new API also supports custom controllers, all of which can tie into a singular unified interface that Microsoft has described as being “low latency”. This means that developers won’t have to spend as much time in ensuring that multiple input methods are supported by their titles, especially if they are Xbox Play Anywhere games.
PlayFab Game Saves are similarly a new way for games to unify how their save data is handled. This means that players can make progress through a game on their Xbox device of choice before then continuing that same save file on PC, all without facing a single issue. The new feature also supports other cloud save solutions, including those offered by Steam and other ecosystems. The feature is capable of handling conflicts arising from different save data, while also supporting playing while completely offline.
Along with these, there have are also a host of new behind-the-scene upgrades. These include the Xbox Game Package Manager that allows developers to handle uploading their games or patches across PC and Xbox more seamlessly, the ability for developers to target ARM64 and x64 as target platforms simultaneously, and even Cross-Platform Game Runtime, which allows for PC games to call into Xbox APIs for things like authentication services more smoothly.
A major theme with these upgrades and new features unveiled by Microsoft is the company’s ongoing unification of Windows and Xbox as gaming platforms. These features will work hand-in-hand with things like the Xbox Play Anywhere initiative, which allows players to purchase only a single copy of a game to get it on PC as well as Xbox. Interestingly, the fact that Microsoft has also included support for games released through Steam in these features also indicate that rumours about the next-generation Xbox supporting third-party stores might be true.
A report from last month, for instance, noted that the operating system running on the next Xbox will be “full-bore Windows” rather than it being a heavily stripped-down version of the OS as we see in the Xbox Series X and S. In order to ensure that the UI doesn’t get too awkward to use with a controller, it is also expected to offer “a TV-optimized, console-style experience layered on top.”
Assuming Microsoft’s next console does, in-fact, support third-party stores, the console is also expected to be quite a bit more expensive than what we’ve seen in the past, with reports indicating that the bill of materials costs are currently coming in at $999.
