Xbox Games Showcase 2026 live report – all the news and announcements as Asha Sharma presents for the first time

Good morning! I hope you’re all having a nice weekend. We’ll be back a bit closer to the show later on.

Hey! Connor here, kicking up the live blog in the run up to the Xbox Games Showcase. We’ve got roughly two hours until the show starts, so still plenty of time to get some dinner sorted.

Vaas approved phone says: gears may be cool

It may be! I’m in the mood for a new Gears of War to be honest.

Speaking of Gears, it looks like a Pegi rating for Gears of War: E-Day has popped up showing PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5. Hopefully we’ll see if all these platforms are present in the Gears stream later today.

LordFoogThe2st says: Completely understand MS keeping Gears off PlayStation.

If they want to remain in hardware they have to start giving people a reason to buy it.

Yeah it would be interesting if it’s the first big move towards more console exclusivity from Microsoft. All I’ll say personally is I was planning on getting it on my PS5, which probably isn’t great for Xbox.

Just under one hour to go until the Xbox Game Showcase! What do we all want to see?

30 minutes to go

Good afternoon everyone!

So there’s a bit of chit chat already hey. And Microsoft backtracking on PS5 game releases. Looks like the console war is back on the menu!

zestfulink says: “Just under one hour to go until the Xbox Game Showcase! What do we all want to see?”

Jet…..Set……Radiooooooo!

after watching the 40 second leak of the trailer im so hyped for it as it looks gorgeous

This would be amazing!

FTJT says: I’m expecting a release date for No Ghosts At The Grand. I’d love a big surprising puzzle-y thing though

Here here! I’ve been keeping my hopes up for a release date for this, and would love to see one revealed at the show today.

Kami says: Back with gym diet dinner. What I want; eh, Fable. Dream reveal? Lost Odyssey Remastered. What I expect; next Fallout TV series reveal. XD

I would scream for hours if they announced a Lost Odyssey remaster.

We’re getting close to five minutes to go. The excitement is building, or perhaps I just need the toilet.

Can we expect a big start or will there be more of a crescendo?

It seems like we’ll be on logo-watch tonight as well.

Strap in – it’s about to get busy!

Tick tock, tick tock, what has Microsoft got?

Which game will begin the show? I bet we start with a montage and then it leads into a talking-head segment. And then we get a reveal trailer. That’s where my money’s at. Yours?

Remember when platform holder conferences used to have lots of sales graphs and other boring business lingo? They’re so much more consumer-focused these days.

Kami says: End with XBox One 2; the new multimedia platform. Don Mattrick shows up again for some inexplicable reason to talk about it.

The Mattress strikes back!

The 2026 Xbox summer showcase begins

One minute to go. The screen fades to black. A “Thank you” message comes up, thanking us for an incredible 25 years and cheersing the next 25.

10 seconds, 9, 8… Here we go.

Gears of War E-Day opens the show

The familiar smattering of age-ratings. A Civil Emergence Message flashes up. Multiple tremors are causing damagge. A macho voice. A character grabs a gun. That looks like Marcus Fenix!

They’re not in Gears uniforms yet – they’re in civvies. Marcus has a moleskin jacket on. They’re in a city that’s being destroyed by an invasion. There’s lots of screaming. Locust enemies are erupting out of the ground.

There’s the shotgun, splatting Locust foes. Gears E-Day looks very impressive. Very familiar action but with a different look. We’re in more of a world we recognise now. Now they’re picking up the tradmark Lancer guns, by the looks of things.

Gears E-Day is out 6th October

An enormous crabby crawler bursts out of the earth. Marcus charges forward with the Lancer which only has a knife on the end not a chainsaw, and skewers an enemy. Blood splatters the screen.

Marcus has a team with him, and I think one of them is Dom. That might also have been Baird we just saw. There’s the radial menu to select which gun we want to use – we’re getting more of an arsenal now. We’re in a convenience store and hiding behind counters and getting a glimpse of the cover system.

Marcus decapitates a Locust enemy with a swipe of his bayonetted Lancer gun. It’s chunky, it’s super-gory, and very squelchy, but in that kind of toyish way Gears has.

Active reload system – remember when that was new?

Marcus is somewhat inexplicably just shooting into a load of glass fridges, maybe trying to show us that we can in fact smash them. It’s a very pretty looking game but it’s not perhaps the visual stunner the original Gears once was. Nevertheless, it looks good.

Big Locust enemies enter the supermarket now. Marcus can’t skewer this one. He’s pinned against the wall by his throat. Marcus is blacking out. And there’s the chainsaw, finally. I don’t know who this character is who saved him.

The game’s title flashes up. We’re montaging. It suddenly got a lot more grey in the montage section.

Gears of War E-Day, 6th October.

Gears E-Day is an Xbox exclusive – it’s not coming to PS5

Asha Sharma, the new Xbox boss is on screen now, saying that it’s only fitting that as we return to Xbox, we return to Gears.

And then she confirms it: Gears of War E-Day will be an Xbox exclusive.

Fable is still coming out on PS5

We’ve jumped into a demo for a fantasy game now, by the looks of things. A dark haired, white-skinned female character is giving a sad monologue about losing her sister. Playground Games. Curious. Is this Fable?

Isabel: Hero of Wraithmarsh – presumably she’s a character in Fable.

Ah yes, we’re montaging a bit now and it’s definitely Fable. She’s telling us that the heroes in the world are not heroes, not really. A broad look at parts of the game and it looks impressive.

She’s telling us what a hero really is. A large dose of British humour and swearing is coming through in the background. We’re cutting between her talking and shots of the game in action. Albion is broken she’s telling us. Albion doesn’t need heroes, it needs A Hero. And that hero is presumably us.

“And that hero… is me.” Haha. Nicely done.

Fable is coming out 23rd February. PS5 logo spotted.

The Halo remake looks much more colourful than I remember

We woosh onto Fable a year before the Ring was crated. A very bright and colourful-looking interpretation. Has Halo been this bright before? The mood is very jaunty as well. Lots of banter.

This looks more like a spin-off.

Oh this is the remake. It’s got three all-new missions in it apparently.

Halo: Campaign Evolved. Not sure about that.

28th July. PS5 logo also spotted.

Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is out 27th August

This is Resonance: A Plague Tale, which is obviously the next game in the Plague Tale series, in which we play as Sophia not Amicia.

I’ve actually played thi sbut I can’t tell you more until tomorrow.

Persona 4 Revival gets a February release date

Spoiler for the Plague Tale write-up: I was impressed. It’s a much more combatty game than before, but it works very well. I shall say no more for now.

Moving swiftly onto the Persona 4 remake. I will default to your opinions on this – I don’t know the game very well. It looks… okay to my eyes.

Persona 4 Revival 18th February 2027.

State of Decay is coming in 2027

An Xbox Game Studios game now. We see a tape playing that’s labelled “For Caroline”. Ah, I think this is probably State of Decay 3.

Undead Labs – definitely State of Decay 3.

There was some controversy about a previous trailer we saw that didn’t show much gameplay, but this one has started with some gameplay at least. We’re seeing a bunch of empty places in the world and some zombies shuffling around.

Now we’re seeing gameplay. It looks a bit dated graphically. There’s a truck driving around knocking zombies over. There are multiple characters – presumably players – working together.

A big zombie spits acidy stuff everywhere. Shades of Left 4 Dead. Frantic. Zombies charging everywhere, blowing up.

State of Decay 3. Coming in 2027. PS5 logo also mentioned. So, still no firm release date.

Sea of Thieves Custom Seas arrive 18th June

Sea of Thieves section now. There’s a free update coming that’s got plenty of things in. There are enhanced camera tools, for instance. It’s a creative mode of some sorts? Custom Seas. I see. 18th June.

Metro 2039 arrives in February

Metro now.

A husky voice is telling us Spartans were a legend but someone is spreading tyranny across the world. We see a smattering of gameplay locations as this going on and it all looks very pretty, in an apocalyptic way. Then we see some gameplay, in and out of metros – in the dark and in the relative non-dark up top, although it’s still grey and dismal up there.

This looks very good. Very bleak. Verry ominous. Very detailed. Very atmospheric.

Metro 2039. It’s coming February.

A world premier now for a game in which we’re a pigeon, it looks like, or a bird of some kind. It’s a watercolour kind of world, bright pastel colours. And there are no words, just a little bird interacting with the world. Gentle, playful.

Bad Magpie. Coming 2027.

Wo Long 2 revealed

Zooming onto another world premier. We’re in the East. It’s Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja.

A warrior is fighting some fantastical beasts and humans. They’re summoning a phoenix.

Wo long 2! Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember.

Coming “early 2027”. Switch 2 and PS5 logos also spotted.

A huge tone-change now as we go to a third-person action game about leading your own cult – literally. That’s our mission. It’s absurd comedy, over the top. It’s called Join Us and it’s coming in March 2027.

The next Hellblade game, Senua, announced

Another world premiere. Xbox Game Studios.

This is Hellblade 3 except it’s not Hellblade 3 – it’s called Senua. I saw this trailer before the show and there’s a story going up on the site about it now.

It’s a fuller action-adventure game now, hence them dropping the Hellblade series name. It’s got more combat, more exploration, more puzzles. And the world is twice as big.

Senua, then. 2027. PS5 logo also spotted.

Bethesda now and a Fallout 76 slot. I must admit, they make good trailers. It’s a very bright and colourful trailer. I’m not sure what’s going on.

There’s a free trial coming. Ah, an update called Infestations is available now.

Doom Dark Ages Revelations reawakens the Doom Slayer in July

“Bethesda Presents” now… Id Software. It’s Doom. More stuff for Doom Dark Ages?

We do appear to be in Doom Dark Ages. We’re seeing what may be new levels, new weapons – a magical staff of some kind – new enemies. There’s a spear, too.

More story, it looks like. Is that a new chain weapon?

This summer hell freezes over, the trailer tells us. #

Doom The Dark Ages: Revelations, it’s called. July 7th.

There’s a new Crazy Taxi!

Crazy Taxi! It’s real!

Crazy Taxi is back, it’s got Offspring, and it’s as dayglo bright as the original game by the looks of this. Drive a taxi around a city as fast as you can while delivering your rides.

Crazy Taxi World Tour. Coming 2027.

A limited edition see-through Xbox console is coming in November

Apologies, got distracted for a second there. I missed a seethrough Xbox console and a seethrough Xbox pad. A limited edition Xbox Series console is coming in November. I bet it’s very expensive.

Minecraft Dungeons 2 is out in September

Moving on! We’re into Minecraft land here. This must be Minecraft Dungeons 2.

This is the action RPG take on Minecraft. It looks a bit choppy on the stream but the worlds are impressive. I didn’t play much of the original – did anyone else?

Apologies I glossed over the Age of Empires section there.

29th September for Minecraft Dungeons 2, and it’s also still coming to PS5. I think Gears E-Day is the only game that isn’t.

Magician: The Devil’s Deal is a genuine highlight

A world premiere now from Uppercut games and Focus Home. I say, what’s this? I went to a Focus Home showcase recently and don’t remember this.

We’re in a Victorian-era theatre watching a show – a silouhetted show. We’re being told about a devil with a devil and how Jacob is trapped in eternal torment. But the devil helped him out and offered him a deal. There’s a Dishonored-style vibe to the audience as we see them watching. That stylised artwork.

A character jumps out of the stage and now the auditorium is filled with demon enemies. And we’re seeing gameplay? It’s gorgeous – it must be rendered – and the character is using playing cards and wnads to attack enemies. Oh now we’re seeing true gameplay and it’s slightly different but still charismatic.

A first-person game.

Magician’s: The Devil’s Deal. Coming 2027.

Valor Mortis releases 24th September

Valor Mortis now, from the Ghostrunner studio. French Revolution-era action game – I think it was a Souslike from what I remember.

We’re seeing shots of first-person action. Okay it’s faster than a Soulslike; there’s also a supernatural grappling hook which makes it seem similar to Ghostrunner – we can pause in the air and shoot.

Vincent Cassel is in it as Napoleon!

It’s coming out 24th September.

Bethesda again, and everyone’s hearts leap, and it’s Elder Scrolls, except it’s Elder Scrolls Online. This is a Thieve’s Guild update by the looks of things.

It’ll be interesting to see if Valor Mortis really does come out in September, given that everything else now is. I expect half of the games in September could move.

So this was a Thieve’s Guild update – the return of the Thieve’s Guild. And I think it’s live now.

Microsoft Game Studios now, and this looks like a USA update for Microsoft Flight Sim. Beautiful, beautiful continent, North America, and this may give us a detailed look at just how big and scenic it is.

It looks like a considerable chunk of the country is modelled – even Mount Rushmooore. 4th July, predictably, this is coming. It’s very pro America.

Air races are also coming but afterwards.

We move swiftly on to another Eastern adventure. Oh it’s Where Winds Meet. This is a very pretty game, and it’s done very well. Do any of you play it? A handsome trailer showing us a kind of clockwork dungeon area for us to explore?

Hidden Mountain update coming in July.

Castlevania Belmont’s Curse is out mid-October

Castlevania time! This is the new side-scrolling Castlevania game I can’t quite remember the name of. The 2.5D-looking one.

This one stars the blonde-haired lady whose name I also can’t remember. I’m doing well aren’t I? But is she a Belmont? They are referring to her as one.

It’s very pretty-looking. Rose Belmont. That’s it. 2026. October. That’s brave. 15th October to be exact.

We move onto a game that really is very Ghibli looking. A child explores a rural Japanese landscape by the looks of things, but also inhabited by creature-people as well as humans. I think it’s Japan – it might not be. It’s a cosy game. Oh wait! We live in a terrarium. It’s a world in microcosm.

Vivarium. Coming 2027.

Persona 6 announced

Another world premiere, and this time it’s Atlus. In-game footage and cinematics. We’re seeing a graveyard, I think. Is this Persona 6?

A graveyard at night as we move towards a statue. Lightning flashes. Then a montage of fractured images. P6! In acid green.

That’s all we’re getting.

Spyro returns in spring 2027

Whisking onto anothe rworld premier. We’re in a colourful fantasy world now. Childlike, friendly. A purple magical staff. “A new evil rises.”

“A legendary hero.” It’s a purple dragon. It’s Spyro! Adolescent Spyro.

Spyro: A Realm Beyond.

We’re seeing some gameplay now. Fast flight. A short glimpse.

It’s coming spring 2027.

InXile’s Clockwork Revolution is also an Xbox exclusive, coming next year

Onto an Xbox Game Studios title now which must be inXile’s Clockwork Revolution. Cockney London pub and there’s wearing and jokes. They’re thieves – we’re a thief, by the sounds of thing. And everyone has a bit of clockwork about them.

We’re getting a rundown of the various characters involved. We see some gameplay where someone shoots some oil barrels, so they leak, then shoots the oil so it alights. There’s lots of swearing. In a comedy way.

They’re planning to rob a big boat. We belong to a thieve’s group it seems. It’s very charmisatic.

Oh! We jumped back in time by 25 years.

We can control the past apparently. We have a time-altering gauntlet.

We can go to see bawdy shows in the vicinity. It’s laced with vintage Londonisms. BioShocky-like combat with powers in one hand, guns in the other.

I don’t see RPG trappings like dialogue.

It’s coming in 2027. Another Xbox console exclusive.

Microsoft Studios boss Matt Booty is on now recapping what we’ve seen, so it sounds like that’s it.

That’s not it! There’s another reveal. Oh, it’s Call of Duty.

We’re going to get a first look at the reimagined DMZ.

That seethrough Xbox is pretty.

Xbox Series X25 it’s called.

Sorry, back to Call of Duty.

We’re seeing soldiers creep through an empty shopping mall with night sight on while looking for hostiles. They find some, they shoot their guns. There’s a recorded footage look to what we’re seeing, as though we’re seeing it through someone’s bodycam camera. A frantic firefight ensues.

Our camera is glitching as we’re shot, giving it a real-world look but making it hard to keep up with what’s going on.

This is a very flat finish. This is what happens when you own Call of Duty I suppose. I mean, it looks decent but it’s not exciting.

We’re in a stairwell now and up onto a roof as helicopters arrive and players get missiled. DMZ is an extraction mode, I believe, and this is a view of how tense it’s going to be.

23rd October.

The show ends with a Call of Duty reimagined DMZ reveal

And that’s the end of the main show, as we move onto the deep-dive Gears of War: E-Day segement.

cainhurst94 says: Interesting showcase. Gears looks fun and some big day one games for Gamepass. Not much else that really caught my eye. I feel they move too fast allowing no game to truly sit with the audience.

That was a very speedy conference and we didn’t see anything barring Gears for ver long.

kantaroo3 says: The most interesting / “new news” for me was the change in direction for A Plague Tale. We knew the game was coming out (like 80% of what was announced today) but the new play style may draw me back in.

All in all an OK show. Nothing to blow me away, but I appreciate the focus on in-game footage rather than cinematics and interviews.

I will continue focusing on the backlog after this showcase.

Just a reminder here that I’ve played the new Plague Tale and I’m writing a piece about it that’s embargoed until tomorrow evening. But spoiler: I liked it.

I’m glossing over the E-Day broadcast a bit here because we’re not strictly covering it. There’s some nice detail and a closer look at the game, though. We’re seeing Marcus and Dom in a bar drinking beer and looking strange while wearing civilian clothing – their character models weren’t made for civilian clothes.

Asha Sharma’s big moves in that show seemed to taking PS5 releases away from Gears of War: E-Day and the upcoming Clockwork Revolution. Beyond that? The excitement was for games from other companies: Persona 6, which we didn’t see barely anything of, and Crazy Taxi, which looks lovely. I thought State of Decay 3 looked dated, which is probably because it’s been in development for several years at this point.

It’s interesting to see the Grand Theft Auto 6 black hole continue to push around the release date calendar. September and February are both now stuffed with avoidees.

Gears of War E-Day detail: they’ve apparently completely rebuilt the cover system. There’s a slide that lets you slide under vehicles, and you can jump now, and climb.

Raveen says: No big surprises and they didn’t do a great job of selling the gameplay of anything. Bunch of graphically impressive games though. Even CoD looks fresh.

Metro 2039 looked good as well, although it’s another multiplatform title.

Marcus and Dom’s squad companions this time will be Megs and Lucas, by the way.

Malek86 says: Crazy Taxi looks good, but much like other arcade ports, I always found it a difficult series to sell for $70. I hope Sega is either keeping their expectations in check, or going for a lower-priced release. I doubt that trying to build it into a big open world or whatever, would be a good idea.

I’m hearing that it’s got a gen-AI label on Steam, which will divide some opinion on it. We’re working on a story now.

We’re being told that Gears of War E-Day really pushes graphics settings. But there’s also support for up to 120FPS in multiplayer. At what cost, though, I wonder.

Naturally, Asha Sharma hasn’t had a chance to many long-term changes at Xbox yet, so reverting plans to release Gears E-Day and Clockwork Revolution on PlayStation 5 is perhaps all she can do in the near term. I wonder if this means that in the longer term, a next Elder Scrolls game will forego PS5 as well?

It’s nice to see deep details like this about a game after a conference, and it’s a good way to capitalise on having a lot of people’s attention. It’s information overload but we don’t often celebrate sound effects like this otherwise.

Gears’ Horde mode is getting a new 12-player mode. It’ll be in the open beta weekends this summer.

Gears of War: E-Day looks pretty good. It releases 6th October. And that’s really it now.

A montage recaps everything we’ve seen.

Thank you everyone for joning us this evening. It’s been a busy week. We’ll be digesting it as next week rolls on. We’ve also got Chris Tapsell at the show seeing some of the games we’ve seen shown, so look out for his thoughts soon.

Don’t forget, there are still some Summer Game Fest showcases still to come. And we’ll have a full roundup of everything shown today in the Xbox Showcase on the site soon.

Our full roundup is live

cainhurst94 says: @Rogueywon somehow State of Play feels the best paced. Gives the games space to breathe while also having some talky bits to reset for the next title. SGF leans too much into the padding. Xbox not at all.

It being live also helps build a sense of occasion, I think.