A lot of the focus this year when it comes to Xbox first-party releases has been on Forza Horizon 6, Halo: Campaign Evolved and Gears of War: E-Day, especially considering it's the 25th anniversary of Xbox and those franchises have been integral to the success of the brand for much if not all of its lifespan.

However, there are still two more Xbox-owned games that are coming out before the end of 2026, and they might end up outperforming each of Forza, Halo and Gears. The first of these is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which launches for a wide variety of platforms including Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S on October 23rd.

What makes Call of Duty's release particularly interesting this year is that Xbox isn't putting it on Game Pass at launch, which in theory should lead to even more sales than usual for the latest entry in the series.

The final Xbox first-party release of 2026 is something I hadn't considered until Asha Sharma mentioned it as part of her Town Hall speech the other day, and it's not actually releasing on Xbox consoles (at least for now), but it still counts as an Xbox first-party game. Yes, I'm talking about World of Warcraft: Forever.

Xbox's CEO literally highlighted WoW: Forever as getting off to a "strong start" when speaking about it, although the full release isn't actually scheduled until November 4th.

"Asha Sharma also called out Gears of War: E-Day, Minecraft Dungeons 2, and World of Warcraft Forever for having "strong" starts, and noted that Xbox has seen a 30% increase in positive brand sentiment over the past year."

Again, it feels a little weird to be talking about a game that isn't coming to Series X and Series S at launch, but World of Warcraft: Forever could be massive for Xbox in the long run. There's been so much interest in the game ever since it was recently announced, and it's likely to keep bringing in serious revenue for many years to come.

Blizzard might not be commiting to a console version of WoW: Forever just yet, but they've already implemented controller support in time for launch (which apparently makes it a dream to play on the ROG Xbox Ally X), so surely Asha Sharma won't want to leave money on the table for too long with her core console fanbase.

Imagine if World of Warcraft suddenly becomes an Xbox console exclusive?! That'd be a big move!

So, as much as it might be tempting to look back at Forza, Halo, Minecraft Dungeons 2 and Gears and examine Xbox's first-party success in 2026 based on those titles alone, it's important to look at the big picture here - and to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if World of Warcraft: Forever generates the most revenue out of all these titles in the future.

What do you think? Which of these do you reckon will be the most successful for Xbox based on both critical reception and profit? Do you think they'll bring Warcraft to Series X|S eventually? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

[source windowscentral.com]