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This list has now been updated for February! Only a few changes to mention (took out January's games, added a couple of recently-announced titles, and altered some dates based on the Xbox Developer Direct showcase).

@Lup Not sure if they're all part of the base game or in DLCs as well, but they way it's worded in our press release suggests it's all base game.

Rusev has definitely been in 2K games before, but they're counting him as new because he was in AEW for a few years and this is his first time back.

On a separate note, I ask that everyone remains civil in the comments (the mod team will be less active over the weekend), and just keep in mind that we're all entitled to our opinions.

Debating and disagreeing is obviously fine, just please ensure none of our Community Rules (you can access them underneath the comment box) are broken in the process. Thank you!

@Weebleman @Fiendish-Beaver @Markatron84 @DonkeyFantasy Ah, I wish I'd have done it now, what a reveal that would have been! Alas, I'm just a shifty-looking guy with nothing to hide

@HeavyHoggJP Here you go, I wrote about it last year:

https://www.purexbox.com/features/world-of-warcraft-plays-surprisingly-well-on-xbox-thanks-to-geforce-now

@Lup They still appear in the same place as usual, on the bottom of the screen.

That said, I know games like Rock Band 4 actually push them to the top of the screen by default, so I think those decisions are made on a game-by-game basis.

@HeavyHoggJP I occasionally play it on my Xbox Series X through GeForce Now, but a native version would obviously be preferable.

Thank you to Pure Xbox reader "James" who shared this tip with us earlier today! We hadn't spotted this piece of news, so it's much appreciated

@swedetrap I don't believe so, the developer is 34BigThings (they previously made Redout).

@DaPrince No idea! I can give you the link for that story though:

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2026/01/xbox-studios-boss-shares-update-on-progress-for-state-of-decay-3

@SodaPop6548 No need to apologise! I get the frustration.

@Fiendish-Beaver I don't think you'll get that news anytime soon to be honest! With all this talk about RAM shortages and delays, it feels like the next generation will be delayed by quite some time...

@SodaPop6548 Honestly, I don't think it's a lack of effort. Look at all the ID@Xbox games that launched last year, and there are often 40+ new releases on the Xbox Store every week.

There are just some isolated cases where it doesn't make sense to launch on Xbox for whatever reason — I assume a big one for Limited Run Games is that they're pushing the physical versions of Nickelodeon Splat Pack quite heavily, and we all know that physical games don't sell well on Xbox these days.

@Mr_RC IGN does have a review, but I believe it was released slightly after this article came out — here's a snippet from it:

"I spent about five hours learning the ropes and playing matches at a pre-release hands-on event last week, and what I’ve seen so far had polished gunplay, a compelling roster of characters, and a trailblazing game mode that serves as its killer feature. Of course, that limited play session means it’s still hard to tell if it will have staying power beyond the initial novelty, but with a promising roadmap for the next year already charted out, I’m surprised to say that I like Highguard’s chances."

https://www.ign.com/articles/highguard-review

@CallMeDuraSouka It's just the first places I spotted with a review / preview / impressions immediately after the game went live.

@Fiendish-Beaver Just PvP as far as I'm aware!

WoW needs to be on Xbox Series X and S already. Come on Blizzard, you're leaving money on the table!

@themightyant The problem with optional add-ons is that nobody focuses on building for them — it's like when the Kinect became an optional add-on for the One S and One X, which basically signalled the end of Kinect development.

I fear that if it's optional, companies won't see any reason to make physical games for Xbox anymore — it's already a small market as it is, and it'd become even smaller.

I'd still get it for my existing collection and backwards compatible games that require discs, but it'd spell the end of future physical releases for the most part IMO.

I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see them shipping a console with a disc drive for the next generation. Optional add-on maybe.

Personally, I'm willing to pay a little extra for the ability to use physical media, especially considering how often games get digitally delisted.

@themightyant @Elbow You're welcome! Glad to see so many people intrigued by this one, it's such a great game

We do try and highlight under-the-radar games as much as possible, but truth be told they don't do much for us in terms of views. That's generally why we do the monthly Indie roundups instead.

Still, here are a few others we've highlighted recently:

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2026/01/this-new-rpg-is-heavily-inspired-by-paper-mario-and-its-releasing-on-xbox-next-week

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2026/01/mavrix-is-bringing-its-massive-open-world-downhill-biking-game-to-xbox-next-thursday

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2025/12/nobodys-really-heard-of-it-but-this-is-one-of-my-xbox-games-of-the-year-for-2025

https://www.purexbox.com/features/10-new-xbox-indie-games-that-should-be-on-your-radar-in-january-2026

@OldGamer999 We've done similar polls, but not that exact one. You'll definitely see it on Pure Xbox at some point 👍

@Prestige-worldwide I don't think we have actually. Definitely food for thought — although I think we'd come in for criticism for asking it so early as well 😅

People are making a lot of good points in the comments here!

I think the other thing to consider is that a lot of people feel like "Game of the Year" refers to the award at Geoff's Game Awards show these days, whereas personally I feel like it refers to a wide range of "Best Games" ceremonies (including the GOTY roundup we do here at Pure Xbox on Christmas Day!).

If you take ALL of those into account, I can't see how GTA 6 doesn't win the majority of GOTY awards unless it gets delayed, releases too late to be considered, or falls short of expectations (which GTA titles historically haven't done).

It's not exactly a problem either way — Fable has every chance to be a massive success without needing to be recognised as "Game of the Year" — but I'm sure Xbox would love to be parading Fable around with as as many GOTY awards as Expedition 33 received in 2025.

And of course, Fable is making a fantastic first impression, but we don't know how it'll fare in our hands yet...

@Hdn763 You're welcome! Love to highlight under-the-radar games like this where possible 👍

I think GTA 6 is primed to win GOTY for sure (as long as it lives up to the hype ot course).

In terms of scheduling, I'm guessing they're looking at September as the earliest possible release for Fable, and then secretly hoping GTA gets delayed so they can push it to November instead.

If GTA 6 goes ahead this year and Fable isn't ready by September, I feel they'll hold back Fable until February-April of 2027 to allow enough breathing room.

@Tsushima We've got a guide to Xbox 360 games elsewhere on Pure Xbox, which each game mentioning whether they're backwards compatible or not:

https://www.purexbox.com/guides/best-xbox-360-games

@Balaam_ Good shout! The separate PC version is also on sale for the same price right now.

You know what I find crazy? Fable Anniversary, which has a Steam version, doesn't have an Xbox PC version. All three of those Fable games are exclusive to consoles in the Xbox ecosystem.

With a reboot on the way, you'd think Fable Anniversary would be part of PC Game Pass natively.

@KING_COWELL I understand your point, but the program is called Free Play Days and we didn't name it — Microsoft did.

Sometimes they make these games free for everyone (like last week, they made four of them free to all), and other times they lock them behind Xbox Game Pass. This week, four out of the five games are locked behind Game Pass.

I don't think size matters here, it's about how they use it.

This means much more to me than a large open world:

"Case in point, every building in the game you can go inside. So, every building needs an interior because you could rob it if you wanted, or you could buy it and live there with your family or with one of your families. So, I guess the focus just got pulled right in and we ended up building out much more rich detail at ground level"

@Naughtyottsel92 Hard to say if it's worth that price tag at this point in its life (and knowing FH6 is around the corner), but it's a great open world driving / racing game for sure.

@Naughtyottsel92 Five is good, it just feels quite samey if you've played the old Horizons (at least to me). Still a very good game though.

@fatpunkslim No, it's not bad at all — just trying to highlight that the Premium Upgrade is most useful for Xbox Game Pass members because they can't access the Premium version through Game Pass itself.

@Neither_scene Yeah, they do! They're usually at the peak of the "Top Paid" Xbox charts around launch.

We don't normally run polls, but we've done a few — the results have been a bit all over the place depending on the game:

https://www.purexbox.com/features/poll-are-you-buying-the-early-access-upgrade-for-starfield

https://www.purexbox.com/features/poll-are-you-buying-the-early-access-upgrade-for-avowed

https://www.purexbox.com/features/poll-so-are-you-playing-the-outer-worlds-2-in-early-access

@Sakai Yeah, that title would have been fine. As I say, we just leant into the Game Pass angle because we know these upgrades are popular with Game Pass members.

Not trying to cause confusion, we just assumed that most people were familiar with the upgrade system by now for Xbox Game Studios titles. If not, we've tried to make it as clear as possible in the article.

We'll definitely take the feedback on board going forward though.

@Sakai Sorry you feel that way, it was not the intention. We just know that many people on Xbox Game Pass buy these upgrades, so we leant into the Game Pass angle for it.

@Toot1st I assume you mean because we didn't put "Premium" in the headline? We assumed people knew what we meant by a Game Pass upgrade considering Microsoft has been doing these for years now — it's all detailed in the article itself if not.

For those who want additional clarification, Forza Horizon 6 IS included with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass on day one, and you don't have to pay anything extra for it. The Premium Upgrade is only for early access and additional content like expansions and other DLC (like car passes).

@Sakai Yeah, but these upgrades have often been targeted at Xbox Game Pass members because people who are buying FH6 anyway can just buy the Deluxe / Premium versions outright.

The problem with Game Pass is that you only get the Standard version included, so there's no way of accessing the extra content unless you buy the upgrade.

The Xbox Store page for the Premium Upgrade says the following:

"Forza Horizon 6 Premium Upgrade is the best value for Game Pass members as compared to buying each included item separately and a great option for Standard and Deluxe Edition players looking to expand their journey at the Horizon Festival."

@PsBoxSwitchOwner Nope, no word so far. We'll have a separate story about it on Pure Xbox later today though.

Update: Added an extra poll so you can vote on which game you were most impressed by! We might revisit this later in the week for a separate article as well.

@Fiendish-Beaver Titbit! They've also been speaking to the folk behind Halo: Campaign Evolved (which we covered yesterday) and Clockwork Revolution (we'll highlight that later this week, but don't want it to get lost in the Dev Direct shuffle today).

@Fiendish-Beaver Yeah, I doubt it'll be considered more generally to be honest. Metacritic will include it in their rankings for best games of 2026 though.

@kantaroo When we started doing these lists a few years ago, we used "console" as a blanket term to refer to the Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and then "Series X|S" for those few exceptions that were next-gen titles only. Microsoft does the same thing in their official Game Pass roundups too.

Nowadays, if you see "console", that means it's either confirmed for Xbox One as well, or we don't have enough information to know whether it's specific to Series X|S yet.

@Fiendish-Beaver If you mean in general, then it'll entirely depend on the criteria for The Game Awards, The Golden Joysticks, etc. I assume we won't see it making the GOTY list for any of those though.

We'll definitely be including it as part of our GOTY poll at the end of 2026, so it has every chance of making the top 10.

Update: It's being reported that Beyond Good & Evil 2 has survived the cancellations. More details at the top of the article.

Tagging @Markatron84, @swedetrap — apologies for anyone I missed who wanted to know about this!

@Markatron84 Nope, no word on the sixth game yet as far as I'm aware. I'm sure someone will track them all down at some point.

@Fiendish-Beaver Yeah, I think you're right. They're putting a lot of effort into the PC / cloud side of things for obvious reasons, but I'm sure they're also doing the same for the next Xbox console behind the scenes.

Obviously a poor update from a console perspective, but I will say the Game Save Sync Indicator has been a nice addition already on my ROG Xbox Ally — really useful to get that kind of feedback on how my saves are syncing between devices.

Few more games added to the pile!

Kentum
Bratz Rhythm & Style
Detechtive 2112
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
Silver Nornir

Good idea IMO, those classic Fables will surely get a few sales over the next few days.

@Fiendish-Beaver Yeah, I think if you have a decent gaming PC and a Steam Deck, buying on Steam makes a lot of sense.

This is just for people who are using Xbox consoles and also want to play on PC sometimes, whether that's a Windows 11 PC or a Windows handheld like the Xbox Ally.