Lock in, twin. It’s officially the biggest month of the year for gaming, where major brands like Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo finally drop the curtains to reveal their upcoming slate of new games. This is the month where internet myths, urban legends and conspiracy-led reddit threads either manifest into cinematic trailers or cease to exist entirely.
Earlier this week, Xbox held its annual Xbox Games Showcase 2026 at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. Marking its milestone 25th anniversary, Xbox threw a tonne of nostalgia at us. Fortunately, PEDESTRIAN.TV was on the ground in LA to witness the hype firsthand and we’ve sourced you the eatays (tea in pig latin) straight from the horse’s mouth.
What happened at Xbox Games Showcase 2026?
The sheer volume of releases in the showcase was dizzying: 13 world premieres, 10 highly anticipated titles from iconic studios like Activision and Bethesda, alongside five massive updates for live-service games like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, The Elder Scrolls and Sea of Thieves.
Console exclusive games made a triumphant return to Xbox, headlined by the gritty prequel Gears of War: E-Day (arriving October 6, 2026) and an entirely original, brand-new universe called Clockwork Revolution.
Quintessential noughties favourites returned in droves, with the aforementioned Gears of War: E-Day and Master Chief in Halo: Campaign Evolved, slated to arrive in July with the highly anticipated Fable reboot and revival of Spyro set to follow in 2027.
It was these beloved franchises, sprinkled amongst completely original new works, that made the Xbox Games Showcase feel less like a corporate event and more like a time capsule. It quietly made an entire room reminisce about the early 2000s — the era of tangled controller cords and the green glowing boxes that gave many of us our very first gaming memories.
It was these beloved franchises, sprinkled amongst completely original new works, that made the Xbox Games Showcase feel less like a corporate event and more like a time capsule. It quietly made an entire room reminisce about the early 2000s — the era of tangled controller cords and the green glowing boxes that gave many of us our very first gaming memories.
Fortunately for you, we got our hands on some of the most anticipated games of the showcase, plus some exclusive chats with the creators behind them. Now that the embargoes have lifted, Kiyomi girl get your juice, get your popcorn – here is everything we learned at Xbox Games Showcase 2026.
Spyro: A Realm Beyond
Your favourite purple dragon Spyro is officially back! After nearly 20 years, a brand-new original adventure game called Spyro: A Realm Beyond has been unveiled and is dropping in Australian Autumn 2027.
PEDESTRIAN.TV attended an exclusive Q&A with the developers, Toys for Bob, who revealed that Tom Kenny, the legendary voice behind Spongebob SquarePants, is returning to voice Spyro once again. Apparently, he slipped back into character effortlessly.
“Within like 10 seconds of being in the booth, he is Spyro again. He remembers his lines from the original trilogy,” the devs shared. “People are coming up to him, telling him that they want a new Spyro game and so for us, it’s extremely validating.”
The developers also revealed they actively sourced Reddit and YouTube to make a “word cloud of emotions”, building the game’s feel around fan sentiment online. In even better news, Spyro: A Realm Beyond is designed to be a welcoming entry point for casual and new players, where anyone can play without doing any homework on the original games.
Spyro: A Realm Beyond is expected to release in 2027.
Bad Magpie
Cozy gamers, pull up. Bad Magpie is a thoughtful narrative-adventure game coming from indie developer Milktooth. The story follows a wounded, one-winged magpie abandoned by its flock. To cure its loneliness, the bird goes on a quest to win the favour of a fallen star by stealing shiny trinkets.
And no, the character is not inspired by our notoriously aggressive Australian magpies, the UK-based developers confirmed to P.TV. Instead, they pulled inspiration from Pingu, Shadow of the Colossus, children’s books and surprisingly Residential Evil (specifically, the in-game elements where players find keys to unlock new parts of the map).
The story has been described as quite emotional, and is told entirely via gameplay with zero text, dialogue or cutscenes. During our hands-on preview, we found gameplay to be relaxing yet highly strategic, giving you a densely packed open world to explore at your own pace. It’s the perfect game to unwind with after a hectic day. Because the world encourages creative problem-solving and open exploration, the developers noted it’s also a brilliant way for kids to make their own unstructured fun, designed to be played over and over again, when it lands on Game Pass.
Bad Magpie is scheduled for release in 2027.
JOIN US
If you’re a Sims girlie who secretly wants to try something a bit more unhinged with survival-game mechanics, JOIN US is for you. Arriving in March 2027, this is a highly satirical survival game where your main objective is to recruit and manage your very own 1970s-style doomsday cult.
Developers Wolf Haus Games told P.TV they used sharp social commentary and dark humour to balance the heaviness of cults. In the game, you build a compound, custom-design your cult’s belief system and fend off the locals, police and government from trying to shut your operation down.
What makes this game stand out is the creators are filmmakers transitioning into gaming, determined to use the survival genre to tell a story that’s never been done before.
“Survival games naturally have players’ attention and we wanted to do something that hasn’t been seen in the genre with that attention,” Wolf Haus Games explained.
Even from our brief hands-on time, the world felt incredibly detailed and immersive as you swap between cult members to handle shooting, looting and compound customisation. Watching your recruited NPCs gathering together and doing weird culty things, like synchronised dancing, chanting, push-ups or simply sitting in the grass disassociated in total silence, completely sucked us into the universe.
JOIN US is shaping up to be one of our favourite games for 2027.
Minecraft Dungeons II
Dropping in late September this year, Minecraft Dungeons II is an action-adventure RPG. For anyone unfamiliar with the spin-off, this differs entirely from traditional Minecraft – it’s a linear, top-down dungeon crawler focused on hacking-and-slashing enemies and collecting rare loot. There are no mining or block-building mechanics in this game.
Parents, you’re going to love this: the design elements in this sequel were explicitly tweaked by the team to stop “couch fighting” between siblings. We played the four-player couch co-op version and can confirm it is an absolute slay to play with mates.
Take note: this is going to be an excellent gift for younger gamers later this year.
Minecraft Dungeons II drops on September 29, 2026.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 (Multiplayer)
One of the biggest names in gaming is back in October, baby. The multiplayer preview for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 was wildly addictive. The movement felt silky smooth and incredibly easy to pick up and play for both new and returning players.
This year, Call of Duty is globetrotting, taking players through maps in North and South Korea, New York, Russia and India. During our exclusive hands-on session, we tested two multiplayer maps. First up was “Sentinel”, a moody, gritty Russian military base blanketed in snow. From there, we flipped to a vibrant “Mumbai” map to test a thrilling new mode called “Inflation”.
The concept is simple: players drop cash when they die, so the goal is to hunt down opponents, collect their dropped currency and stack it up for your team. Carrying a massive pile of money turns you into a target, and since you drop everything if you get caught, the tables can turn in seconds.
Modern Warfare 4 is fast, entertaining and shaping up to be a welcome addition to the franchise.
Xbox went Oprah Winfrey with the 25th Anniversary Console
To celebrate 25 years of Xbox, Microsoft is dropping the Xbox Series X 25th Anniversary Edition this November. The console features an insane translucent cover in OG green — a heavy dose of nostalgia throwing it right back to the original 2001 console.
@pedestriansport cop 😮💨 We’re on the ground at Xbox Showcase in LA, where the limited edition XBOX Series X25 has been announced. Sporting the translucent design from the original Xbox and OG Green we grew up with 🥹 Alledgely the X lights up in green too 👀 chat do yall rate it?
♬ Asleep In Space – Zachariehs
Now, the absolute pinnacle of the event came when Xbox CEO Asha Sharma went full Oprah Winfrey mode. The theatre was packed out with a lucky crowd of everyday fans who had scored exclusive invites via a lottery. Sharma promised that every single person in the room with “Fan” stamped on their badge would get a 25th Anniversary Edition console when it drops in November. A casual $849 AUD gift dropped out of nowhere and earned her a standing ovation from the crowd.
Everything Announced At Xbox Games Showcase 2026
If you want a list of every single game that was revealed at the Xbox Games Showcase 2026, look no further:
Fable
Spyro: A Realm Beyond
Bad Magpie
JOIN US
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 (DMZ)
Gears of War: E-Day
Clockwork Revolution
DOOM: The Dark Ages | Revelations
Halo: Campaign Evolved
Minecraft Dungeons II
Crazy Taxi: World Tour
Persona 6
Persona 4 Revival
Senua
METRO 2039
State of Decay 3
Magicians: The Devil’s Deal
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse
Valor Mortis
Vivarium
Where Winds Meet
Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember
Age of Empires IV: Raiders of the North
The Elder Scrolls Online: Return of the Thieves Guild
Fallout 76: Infestations
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024: World Update 22
Sea of Thieves: Custom Seas | Season 20
Xbox 25th Anniversary Console
The writer travelled to LA courtesy of Xbox.
The post Spyro, Gears Of War & More: Everything We Learned From The Xbox Games Showcase 2026 appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
