5 Key Takeaways From Xbox’s Developer Direct

Microsoft held its first Developer Direct of 2026 on Thursday, spotlighting four games, including one previously unannounced. It was a strong effort all the way around, so let’s drill down on the five most important things to focus on:

5) Double Fine Is Developing a New Game

Industry legend Tim Schafer made an unscheduled appearance during the Direct, announcing that the team at Double Fine, which just released Keeper in October, is already deep into making another new title, Kiln. Dubbed a “pottery party brawler,” Kiln allows you to create your own pottery from scratch and then compete with others to douse the opposing team’s fire. Now the big question is what percentage of user-created pots will be adult in nature. I’m going with somewhere around 70%.

4) Forza Horizon 6 Gets a Release Date

Playground Games made their first of two appearances with Forza Horizon 6, showing off exceptional visuals and talking about the exhaustive prep that went into making driving around Japan as authentic as possible—there are literal cherry blossom petal physics. At the end, it was announced that the game would be launching May 19 on Xbox Series X|S with a PlayStation 5 version coming later in the year. We also got timelines for the launches of Kiln (Spring 2026), Beast of Reincarnation (Summer 2026), and Fable (Autumn 2026).

3) All 4 Games Will Be Available Day 1 on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

The Xbox Game Pass Ultimate took some serious heat when the price increased from $19.99 per month to $29.99 back in October. Whether the service is worth the cost is very much a “your mileage may vary” situation, but Microsoft continues to try and justify it by loading the service with new content, including all four titles shown here being playable at launch.

2) Beast of Reincarnation Had My Curiosity—Now It Has My Attention

Of the three games announced for the Direct, Beast of Reincarnation was by far the biggest wild card, coming from developer Game Freak, which is known almost exclusively for their work on the Pokémon franchise. What they showed here looked great, and the idea of “one-person, one-dog” gameplay, even if it sounds funny, has potential based on what they had on display. For a game that didn’t get mentioned in my top 26 games for 2026 column, Beast of Reincarnation very much put itself on my radar.

1) Fable Looked Like Fable...Only Better

It’s been over 15 years since Fable had a mainline entry, and nearly a decade since developer Lionhead Studios closed their doors. Despite that, the series’s ambition and unique tone have allowed it to stay relevant during a long absence and never truly get lumped in with other RPGs. It was distinctly its own thing. New developer Playground Games appears to have understood that, and their extended look at the upcoming Fable game checked off box after box of what differentiated those older games. The world looked amazing, and the combat, never a strong suit of the original trilogy, was encouraging as well. It’s difficult to imagine a much better showing from Playground Games than what they did.

Related: 'MIO: Memories in Orbit' Game Review: A Memorable Experience