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I look forward to Xbox Developer Direct because it has become a staple of the January news cycle, perhaps even better than June’s showcase, and provides a great snapshot of what Team Xbox will be announcing throughout the year.
This morning’s presentation saw Playground Games pull double duty with Forza Horizon 6 and its first foray into another genre with Fable, which seeks to continue the legacy left behind by Lionhead Studios’ original trilogy. It also included a first look at Game Freak’s Beast of Reination and a little surprise.
Here’s everything announced at this morning’s Xbox Developer Direct. More vivid trailers have been released for each game, but for a complete overview, find the entire Developer Direct here.
Forza Horizon 6 release date confirmed along with new gameplay features
After the date was leaked last week, Playground Games and Xbox confirmed this morning that Forza Horizon 6 will indeed be released on May 19th on both PC and Xbox, with early access starting May 15th for users who purchased the Premium Edition. The PlayStation 5 version is expected to arrive later this year.
Featuring over 550 cars at launch, the game shakes up the progression of the Festival campaign, introducing a new race type that takes you through dangerous conditions through Japan’s narrow mountain roads, and a new estate mechanic that lets you and your friends build estates to house your cars on blocks of rural land.
Beast of Re Incarnation is a beautiful post-apocalyptic action game coming to Xbox Game Pass at launch
I also got my first real look at Game Freak’s Beast of Reinationnation. This is definitely a change from the usual entries in the Pokémon series. The game is not coming to Nintendo platforms at this time, but is expected to be released for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S in the middle of this year.
The game is a stunning action-based RPG that feels part Stella Blade and Sekiro to the world of Nier, where players play as Emma, who, along with her wolf companion Kuu, explore and repair a desolate and lonely world infested with a parasitic plague.
Double Fine Surprise Reveals Pottery Party Brawler Called Kiln
So many great games have come out of Double Fine’s internal game jams. One of my personal favorites is Stacking, and similarly to this, Kiln seems to explore the ironic and creative side of the studio. Having released Keeper, a darker, more exploratory journey, just last year, the fact that Double Fine has kept this more or less a secret is admirable.
In this game that celebrates both creation and destruction, you and your friends join a team of cheeky spirits who inhabit customizable pottery shapes ranging from cups to vases, and take to the battlefield to defeat other teams. I hope it doesn’t turn out like Bleeding Edge. But I think it has enough of that signature Double Fine magic to go the distance.
‘Fable’ perfectly recaptures the spirit of the original trilogy
The star of the show was always going to be Playground’s Fable, a game we’ve only seen bits and pieces here and there. So far it’s been all about the atmosphere, but this morning I took a deep dive into the game Fable for the first time. It’s clear from the get-go that the Playground team has a lot of respect for the original trilogy brought to you via Lionhead Studios.
The game promises a much-needed British sense of humour, a vast and seamless open world, and non-black and white moral conundrums that will impact certain people differently and be memorable. In addition to character customization, the game also includes fan-favorite social features such as owning the world’s homes, getting married, and having children, as well as the ability to chat with the game’s 1,000 non-playable characters as they go about their daily lives.
Fable is scheduled to be released in the fall in the US, so expect it to be sometime between September and November. It will be released at launch for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
