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Players spotted a new "Xbox Playback" feature in the works for Xbox's 25th anniversary

Xbox's Year in Review feature, which lets players look back on their favorite games and greatest achievements, has been missing for over 2 years; the last one was in 2024, and in 2025, players had to turn to fan-made alternatives.

However, it appears Microsoft is finally looking to bring back Xbox Year in Review, but it will be reborn as a new feature called "Xbox Playback" in honor of Xbox's 25th anniversary.

Xbox's "Year in Review" page will be replaced with "Playback" at https://t.co/j1AtcLgTZL (not publicly available yet)Here is mine.Bug: my first Xbox console is XSS though. Never own or see an Xbox One IRL. https://t.co/JDYcXBgyQtOctober 27, 2026

This discovery comes from X user @redphx, who has uploaded images of this system in action (and we can confirm with our sources that it is real). It lists his most-played game of all time, total playtime across all platforms, total number of games played, rarest achievement, and much more.

However, @redphx notes Xbox Playback is bugged right now, as it listed the Xbox One as their first console despite never seeing or owning it, and mentions the Xbox Series X was their first console.

@redphx mentions Xbox's "Year in Review" tab page will be replaced with "Playback" at https://xbox.com/playback, but the link is currently not publicly available.

This is the second "leak" of an Xbox 25th anniversary feature this week, as players are getting new, incomplete achievements for OG Xbox games early (both of which are likely released early due to programming errors).

Not that I'm complaining, of course. It's cool to see Xbox Year-in-Review coming back, but this time detailing your entire Xbox career instead of just the past year. So I'm looking forward to seeing the final product in action when Xbox Playback gets officially announced.

Could these be part of a series of more updates coming to Xbox platforms when the brand's 25th anniversary lands on November 15, 2026? We'll have to wait to find out.

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Forget cloud gaming, DroidDeck brings PC Game Pass to Android natively

Xbox Game Pass is, by far, the best deal in gaming, at least since the price cut earlier this year. While the future of the service remains a bit of a mystery with rumors swirling about potential transformations, I’ve always thought it was a shame that mobile users couldn’t play at least some Game Pass games natively on their phones. Heaven knows it would have been an amazing selling point for Windows Phone, but I digress.

Those on Android, and even iPhone, have had to rely on Xbox Cloud Gaming. We all know that service got quite the considerable nerf, no longer providing unlimited hours of play. Instead, Ultimate members are allotted just 15 hours maximum, with the ability to purchase additional hours starting at $3.99 for 10 hours.

Now, whilst iOS users are out of luck, at least for now, Android can now natively play Xbox Game Pass PC games thanks to the latest DroidDeck update. For now, the feature is in testing, but I’m rather impressed. In fact, we’re seeing a lot of things like this crop up lately; not long ago, we also got Xbox’s PC Game Pass on Steam Deck, thanks to Xodus Nexus, or heck, we even got Xbox One games running on iPhone.

How well do Xbox Game Pass PC games run on Android?

Performance-wise, having looked into it, you can expect pretty decent results, depending on the game, of course. Hollow Knight: Silksong runs at over 100 FPS on a device like the Ayn Thor, and Minecraft Dungeons 2 is hitting 30 to 40 FPS.

It’s still early days, with DroidDeck (which you can check out yourself on GitHub) only on version 0.6.0, but the app itself is coming along nicely. Beyond Game Pass support, you get access to Steam, Epic Games, GOG, Amazon Games, and even itch.io, making it pretty feature-rich.

I find this all extremely cool. I think playing these games on a handheld that actually fits in your pocket, instead of something that requires a backpack, is the future of portable gaming. As much as I enjoy my Xbox Ally X, I’d rather have games on something that, to me, feels like a handheld the way a Nintendo DS or PSP used to.

Maybe that’s just me, though. Let me know your thoughts on DroidDeck and Game Pass PC games on Android in the comments, and be sure to take part in our poll below.

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