FraserG

@Lup Probably June/July/August/September

They're really teasing us by not including the new Thomas game but rather Train Sim World 6 with a Thomas Edition 🙄

Better than nothing though.

@BIG3 Yes, I've been meaning to incorporate that for a while now. Will make sure we do this for the next showcase 👍

@Balaam_ Just FYI, a new mouse and keyboard hasn't been announced — they're just talking about new games with mouse and keyboard support on console.

@Balaam_ It would definitely sell. They're only two developers though I believe, so supporting the PC version is difficult enough.

I'd still expect it to arrive on consoles eventually considering how successful it's proved so far.

Thanks everyone! The list has now been updated (bar Crimson Desert, which I haven't been able to find confirmation for yet in regards to its M&K functionality on Xbox).

I've also added the following titles:

Achilles: Legends Untold
BlazBlue Entropy Effect X
Bum Simulator
Chef Life: A Restaurant Simulator
Death Howl
Echoes of the Plum Grove
The Expanse: A Telltale Series
Gigabash
Scars Above
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Cosmic Shake
Starland Island

@Fiendish-Beaver I'm only going off memory here, but I believe six of the games have released, three of them being on Game Pass.

Vampire Crawlers will make it seven and four when that one releases in April.

@shiny-enzo Yeah, we did one as recently as October, but we can always do it again! I'll add it to my ever-growing to-do list

Update: We've now got a release date for this! Albion Online launches for Xbox Series X and S on April 21st, 2026.

@somnambulance @J_Mo_Money Yeah, there were 16 in the last one, including nine Xbox Game Pass titles.

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2025/11/roundup-all-the-reveals-from-2025s-xbox-partner-preview-showcase

@Balaam_ ... to be determined 😅

@Globo It might be! I guess it'll depend on the game and the specific scenario you're in. I'm sure they'll continue improving it in time for the Series X and S rollout as well.

@Kramlar Yeah, yeah - it's optional.

@Globo I'll be honest, putting aside the whole debate of whether AI is a beneficial thing or not for something like this, I've used Copilot on my ROG Xbox Ally and I'm not really a fan of its implementation so far.

Too often I find myself asking questions that don't get answered properly, and it quickly becomes irritating. It's more intuitive just going on the internet and finding a guide for exactly what I want IMO.

@Fiendish-Beaver I assume so! Who knows how much involvement she had in it 🤔

Xbox's engineering lead has also stated that it took two weeks:

https://x.com/neonepiphany/status/2034475716356825192?s=20

@Questionable_Duck Sounds good! Let's hope so.

@Lup Literally just announced, yep.

Lots of great stuff here. Not many "day one" titles, but Disco Elysium, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Absolum and Resi Evil 7 are all very nice additions.

Glad to see Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is sticking around beyond its one-year anniversary on Xbox Game Pass as well.

@TrollOfWar @tho_mi See, this explains it! Risky business discounting a game so heavily after such a short time. Great for those who held off, but not for those who bought it day one.

I hope you've been getting your money's worth out of it anyway 👍

@TrollOfWar Just because it's a new release on Xbox I guess. They won't want to discount it too much — firstly because it's technically new, and secondly because it'll annoy everyone who bought it for full price back in January!

@shoeses Oh no! My apologies

I'm personally still holding out hope that we'll get some BC additions this year. They know that speculation is going to run wild when they tease something like this, so I question why they'd bring it up now if they don't have something exciting in the works to suit all Xbox fans (and not just the ones who play on PC). We'll see!

@TopCatFCD It's surely too early for an article on "the truth", as most of the details around Helix are rumour and speculation right now. All we mainly know from Microsoft is that it's "designed to play your Xbox console and PC games", and that it'll supposedly feature "leading performance and usher in the next generation of console gaming".

Here's the most recent article we did on Project Helix based on what Microsoft has said about it:

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2026/03/xbox-reveals-new-details-on-project-helix-next-gen-console-says-devs-will-get-it-in-2027

We've covered all the many rumours about the device elsewhere on Pure Xbox, the most recent of which is the following (which references how it might work similarly to the ROG Xbox Ally in terms of its front-end):

https://www.purexbox.com/news/2026/03/windows-and-steam-support-will-make-project-helix-the-most-open-xbox-ever-says-report

The fact that Xbox is saying you'll be able to play your "console" games on Project Helix suggests those will be native versions.

@shoeses Not to dash your hopes or anything, but I believe that promo image was an old backwards compatibility one from a few years ago. They just reused it for the presentation.

Doesn't mean they won't add anything new though! I just wouldn't read too much into any images that have been used.

@Fiendish-Beaver Nah, it's pretty quick! If you haven't got Steam open already, it's about 10-15 seconds while it logs in and everything. Not bad at all.

@fatpunkslim @Fiendish-Beaver There are no wrong answers here! Let's keep it light-hearted 🙌

@Fiendish-Beaver It opens Steam for you basically.

They still need to do work on this - sometimes the game launches without you really noticing Steam's presence in the background, and other times Steam will get in the way of the game and you have to close it manually.

@Globo Has this been fixed for you now? I've been informed it should have been resolved as of earlier today.

@GeminiX53 Yeah, it should be a thing of the past hopefully! Never seen this issue crop up before.

@GeminiX53 Yep, I think they've worked their magic!

@GeminiX53 I've escalated this for you and asked some of the more tech-minded folks at Hookshot Media to look into it

I've just seen that you tagged me yesterday about Crimson Desert and I didn't get the notification for that either.

@Fiendish-Beaver Is that right? I haven't spoken to the Push team about Crimson Desert yet — there are definitely a lot of other outlets calling it an RPG, but Pearl Abyss is indeed referring to it as an "open-world action-adventure" game. 🤷‍♂️

@Aniscape Depends who you listen to. PlayStation is calling it an RPG here, for example:

https://blog.playstation.com/2026/03/04/crimson-desert-hands-on-report-four-hours-in-the-rpgs-massive-open-world/

@Fiendish-Beaver @space_g0blin Yeah, I agree. As mentioned in the article, they were talking about combating bundle spam back in 2025, so this just seems to be an extension of that.

In any case, it's great to see them putting "more spotlight" on stuff like this as you say.

@Gemini53 Hmm, strange. You mean when getting tagged?

@InterceptorAlpha I adore my 3DS, use it all the time. Felt the same way when Pocket Card Jockey came out on Switch, but ultimately decided I preferred the 3DS version anyway.

Play it on 3DS, come back for the remaster if you really like it!

@Titntin I don't believe it's mandatory... just something that Xbox is evidently trying to push as much as possible.

@HesUrProblemNow Unless they find a way to implement a totally different kind of emulation that doesn't require getting the licenses for each game (which they did on the Xbox 360 for original Xbox games), I can't see any old sports titles getting added to backwards compatibility. Just too difficult and costly.

@BacklogBrad I personally think this is what it means (but only certain "iconic" titles). Although I'd hope they'd have a few new BC titles for console as well — they know how much the fans want it, and it would do wonders for restoring some goodwill and kicking off this new Asha Sharma era with positive vibes.

@MondoBondo Just to clarify, the main thumbnail image for this article is one that Xbox put together many years ago for marketing purposes (they haven't shared any new ones as part of today's event).

The one that Jason Ronald included in today's GDC presentation (as seen in the BlueSky link) is also old, so I wouldn't suggest focusing on any specific titles in these images.

Update: This article has been adjusted to just cover March 2026's Xbox delistings, as we've had a few more added since last month.

As @Charger905 points out, Justice League: Cosmic Chaos will delist at some point in March, and so will Highguard on March 12 (which is also going offline on the same day).

The latest list for March is as follows:

Highguard (March 12, 2026)
Jurassic Park Classic Games Collection (March 31, 2026)
DC's Justice League: Cosmic Chaos (March TBD)

@themightyant Yeah, only Microsoft and Epic will be privy to how many Fortnite Crew members XGPU has actually brought in, and even then it doesn't mean they all necessarily signed up for FN Crew.

@Fiendish-Beaver As you say, it's great for those who get value out of it, but everyone else doesn't want to pay more money for something they're not going to use.

I'd be fascinated to see if there's any correlation between XGPU subscribers and Fortnite Crew being added as a Perk.

@themightyant Great to hear! I enjoyed Planet of Lana quite a bit, will have to check out the sequel.

@Fiendish-Beaver It's certainly possible, but not something we tend to do as a rule — will keep it in mind for the next refresh.

Update: Hello! We've now updated this guide for March onwards, taking out a bunch of the previously released games and adding others such as Aphelion, He-Man, Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, Directive 8020, FF7 Rebirth and others.

There are obviously loads more we couldn't fit in here, so we'll keep updating this guide on a monthly basis with new entries.

@Smithylfc2008 Ah OK, hopefully that's all it is then.

@VisitingComet1 I don't think we'll get a chance to cover that separately (at least not until next week), so I've added a section about it into this article.

Strange system! I've seen some people who say they like it, and others grumbling about how long the grind is :/

@Aswannsong Wow. How accusatory.

We were only ever going to do some "Hands On" impressions for Marathon if we could fit them in, but those plans changed when Project Helix got announced the other day and we switched focus.

Nothing to do with "cowering under Bungie's command" or professional pride — we didn't even know this request was a thing until it started getting attention online.

Can't speak for other outlets, don't know what their plans are.

@Tasuki Behave

@Arcticpandapopz Yeah, perhaps they put it on sale a little earlier than intended. I assume it'll drop again before the end of the month, keep an eye out!