Xbox Developer Direct 2026, Microsoft’s latest developer-centered games showcase, aired on Thursday, giving gamers a glimpse at a few highly anticipated titles coming to the console this year. All four titles shown will launch on the brand’s popular digital subscription service, Xbox Game Pass, as day-one releases. From Game Freak’s stunning RPG to the return of the Forza Horizon franchise, check out everything you missed from today’s Xbox Developer_Direct presentation. Mark your calendars!
Forza Horizon 6
In Forza Horizon 6, created by the U.K.-based studio Playground Games, players will head to Japan. Tokyo, more specifically. The Japanese capital city boasts an in-game map that’s “five times larger” than any other urban setting in the franchise yet. Playground team members explained that, in addition to their own visits to Japan, they worked with cultural consultants to ensure their portrayal of the country was accurate.
The sixth entry in the Horizon IP also brings a more reactive, immersive environment, and cars that respond to the world authentically as players cruise. Impressive audio, vehicle wear and tear, realistic seasonal conditions, and more. In addition to a variety of environments, drivers will also find new cosmetic options, customization opportunities, and competitive modes.
Massive garages at every player’s house, an empty and overgrown Estate that’s “permanent and visible by your friends,” open-world car meets, 550+ new body kits, added window decals, after-market car shopping, co-op structure construction — the features are endless, and the developers’ enthusiasm is palpable.
Players will also find expanded accessibility settings, including high-contrast options and an auto-drive setting for players seeking a hands-free experience.
Forza Horizon 6 speeds onto Xbox and PC on May 19, 2026, with the PlayStation version coming later this year.
Beast of Reincarnation
Game Freak (yes, the Pokémon studio) is giving gamers its all with Beast of Reincarnation, a “one-person one-dog action RPG” set in a cruel version of 4026 AD Japan that’s been overrun by nature.
Emma and her four-legged friend, Koo, must explore — and survive — fearsome forests and escape the creatures within them. Emma, infected by the unforgiving “blight,” has the power to control plant life. Emma lives in complete isolation as a “sealer,” who must hunt and eliminate the dangerous “malefacts” and absorb their “blight.”
Her furry counterpart, Koo? A malefact.
“Though their existences should be fundamentally incompatible, the wheels of fate begin to turn when Emma and Koo cross paths,” Game Freak Director Kota Furushima writes in an Xbox Wire post. “Emma and Koo must fight their way through these forests and the malefacts to take down the Nushi. To ultimately defeat the Beast of Reincarnation, Emma and Koo have to absorb the Nushi’s immense power and acquire their respective skills.”
As Emma, manipulate your vine-like hair as-needed in order to explore hard-to-reach areas. Slice-‘n-dice your way through beastly NPCs with your katana. When in control of Koo, players will support their human with complementary skills via a command-based system, a la turn-based RPGs. Together, perform powerful “Blooming Arts” specials.
Beast of Reincarnation releases on Xbox, PC, and PlayStation in Summer 2026, though no specific date was given.
Kiln
Dreamed up during a two-week creativity period that the crew calls “Amnesia Fortnight,” Double Fine’s new “online multiplayer pottery brawler” Kiln allows players to connect and create with friends before crushing ’em in competitive ceramic combat.
Start off as a tiny pottery-crafting spirit that, like some kind of supernatural hermit crab, can inhabit the very vessel they created. Execute original moves and special attacks based on the shape and size of your ceramic creation and explore nuanced maps that “integrate with how you choose to play, and what you choose to play as.” Some regions are exclusive to particular pottery dimensions; parts of playable stages may be too narrow or just plain impassible for certain shapes.
The end of each round sends players back to the “wedge,” where, with rewarding meta progression, they can return to the wheel head and improve upon past designs.
Throw yourself in the ring when Kiln comes to Xbox, PlayStation, and PC in Spring 2026.
Fable
“What does it mean, to you, to be a hero?”
The same crew behind the aforementioned Forza Horizon series is hard at work on their first open-world RPG. Fable, the classic role-playing game from the original creators at Lionhead Studios, is back in what Playground calls a “really faithful” brand-new adventure. The new title also brings true open-world environments, a first for the franchise.
In true Fable fashion, players start their experience as a child. Explore the quaint, storybook-ish Briar Hill until a strange force turns your entire community into stone, your grandmother included.
Explore freely from early on, and customize your character down to clothing, skin tone, scars, and tattoos. You’ll run into some recognizable townsfolk as you meet your other, brand-new neighbors —
In Fable, the choices you make will define you. If you decide to toy with the townspeople, you might pay for it later.
“Morality has always been super important to Fable,” explains Ralph Fulton, Playground Games’ GM and Game Director, ” … and morality is central to our game, too, but we have a slightly different take on it. For us, morality isn’t black or white. There are lots of grey areas.”
The world of Albion is packed with countless fully-voiced NPCs, each capable of diverse interactions that hinge on your decisions. Buy a house (or all of ’em), start businesses, hire and fire, make money, get a job, romance villagers, start families, settle down — enjoy the realistic and immersive RPG elements that made the early games so good.
“Our game will never judge you, but the people of Albion will — loudly,” one team member teases.
Fable arrives on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC in Fall 2026.
