2026 is shaping up to be an extremely interesting year for Xbox fans, also coinciding with the brand's 25th anniversary celebrations. Microsoft had already announced the start of the year in style with the return of the Developer_Direct, the broadcast that takes us directly inside the development studios to find out the news on upcoming titles, but now we also have further juicy details.

The appointment is set for Thursday 22 January at 19:00 Italian time. Maintaining the formula that we have learned to appreciate in previous editions, the event will allow us to hear the details directly from the creators of the games, offering us unprecedented looks at the gameplay and insights into the mechanics of three major productions planned for this year.

The great protagonist of the evening will be the British studio Playground Games, which doubles its presence by showing us two titles. We will finally be able to take a first in-depth look at the gameplay of Forza Horizon 6: the team will reveal how it has recreated the landscapes of Japan in this new open world chapter, illustrating the new features and the visual rendering of the different Japanese settings.

But the studio will also take us back to the magical world of Albion with Fable. An in-depth reveal is planned that will show us new gameplay sequences, revealing the magic and pitfalls that await us in this new beginning for the saga. We will find all the key elements that have made the franchise famous, such as moral choices, the consequences of our actions, action and typical British humor (chickens included!), all reimagined for both historical fans and those approaching the series for the first time.

The virtual tour will then take us to Tokyo to visit Game Freak. After last year's reveal at the Xbox Games Showcase, the studio will offer us a detailed overview of Beast of Reincarnation. We will be able to see in action this action RPG "one-person, one-dog" set in a post-apocalyptic Japan, discovering the secrets of development and the mechanics related to the protagonist Emma, capable of manipulating plants, and the cooperation with her dog Koo.

We just have to wait for January 22nd to discover all these news!