September 24, 2026
Control Resonant is out today, Gears of War: E-Day arrives on 6 October, Modern Warfare 4 on 23 October and GTA 6 on 19 November — and Fable and Final Fantasy 7 Revelation already lead the 2027 line-up. Here is the full Xbox Series X|S release calendar, with Game Pass status for each game.
The Xbox calendar for the rest of 2026 is the busiest it has been in years. Remedy's Control Resonant arrives today, the first-party prequel Gears of War: E-Day lands in less than two weeks, and GTA 6 is finally pencilled in for 19 November. Behind them sits a 2027 line-up that already includes Fable, Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, a Resident Evil Code Veronica remake and the next Hellblade game.
With studio layoffs still making headlines and new dates being announced almost weekly, it is easy to lose track. So we have sorted the biggest confirmed Xbox Series X|S releases by date and flagged which ones are heading to Game Pass.
Out today: Control Resonant (24 September)
Biggest Xbox exclusive of the year: Gears of War: E-Day — 6 October, day one on Game Pass
Autumn shooter: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 — 23 October
The big one: GTA 6 — 19 November
First-party 2027 headliner: Fable — 23 February 2027, on Game Pass
September: a strong finish to the month
Control Resonant — effectively Control 2 — swaps Jesse Faden for her brother Dylan, freed by the Federal Bureau of Control to deal with a cosmic threat that has bent Manhattan out of shape. Game Pass status has not been confirmed.
On 29 September two very different releases follow. Minecraft Dungeons 2, from Mojang and Double Eleven, takes the blocky dungeon-crawler across two worlds and is confirmed for Game Pass. On the same day CD Projekt Red releases The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered as a free upgrade for existing owners, with reworked skill trees, better visuals and a transmog system for Geralt's gear.
October: horror season and two heavyweights
October is packed, and a large share of it is horror. Here are the key dates:
| Date | Game | Genre | Game Pass |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Oct | End of Abyss | Action-adventure | TBC |
| 1 Oct | Don't Fret | Psychological horror | TBC |
| 2 Oct | Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve | Flight combat | TBC |
| 6 Oct | Gears of War: E-Day | Third-person shooter | Yes |
| 6 Oct | Star Wars: Galactic Racer | Racing | No |
| 8 Oct | Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival | Survival horror | TBC |
| 8 Oct | Silver Pines | Horror Metroidvania | TBC |
| 8 Oct | Forever Ago | Narrative road trip | No |
| 13 Oct | Valor Mortis | First-person soulslike | Yes |
| 13 Oct | Planet Zoo 2 | Management sim | TBC |
| 14 Oct | Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 | Retro FPS | TBC |
| 15 Oct | Castlevania: Belmont's Curse | 2D action | TBC |
| 20 Oct | We Were Here Tomorrow | Co-op puzzle | TBC |
| 22 Oct | Final Fantasy Resonance | HD-2D RPG | No |
| 23 Oct | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 | FPS | No |
| 27 Oct | Remothered: Red Nun's Legacy | Survival horror | TBC |
| 29 Oct | The Wolf Among Us Remastered | Narrative detective | TBC |
Gears of War: E-Day is the one Xbox owners have been waiting for. Rather than a sixth numbered entry, The Coalition has gone back to the beginning: the story is set 14 years before the original Gears and follows a younger Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago through the first Locust attack, rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5. As a first-party release it is on Game Pass from launch.
Seventeen days later Infinity Ward delivers Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4. The campaign is set during a conflict on the Korean peninsula and promises a darker tone, with multiplayer and the DMZ extraction mode both confirmed. Notably, the listing currently says it will not launch on Game Pass.
Don't Fret casts you as a living guitar stuck in a nightmarish music school. Valor Mortis resurrects one of Napoleon's fallen soldiers for gory first-person soulslike combat — and it is confirmed for Game Pass. Castlevania: Belmont's Curse takes the whip to 1499 Paris as the successor to vampire hunter Trevor Belmont.
November and December: GTA 6 and a run of remakes
After being pushed back, Rockstar's GTA 6 is set for 19 November. It returns the series to a present-day Vice City with two playable leads, Lucia and Jason. Game Pass availability has not been announced — and, given Rockstar's history, nobody should count on it.
Around it, the year winds down with a mix of new ideas and nostalgia:
- 5 Nov — Edge of Memories, an anime-styled single-player RPG about a Soul Whisperer fighting a plague called the Corrosion
- 1 Dec — Hela: Of Mice and Magic, a Scandinavian-inspired 3D co-op adventure from the team behind Unravel
- 3 Dec — Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World, starring Bianca and Nera from Dragon Quest 5
- 3 Dec — Rayman Legends Retold, a faithful remake built on the original 2013 level data
- 10 Dec — Attack on Titan 3, covering the whole anime storyline and adding the Nine Titans
- 10 Dec — Stage Tour, RedOctane's return to plastic-guitar rhythm games, with 90+ licensed tracks and a roguelike Tour mode
A second group is confirmed for 2026 without a firm date. Among them are Xbox-optimised versions of Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator, the cosy magic life sim Witchbrook, the murder-mystery farming game Grave Seasons, DrinkBox's psychedelic western RPG Blighted, and two Game Pass titles: Thunder Lotus's At Fate's End and the ghost-hunting hotel makeover There Are No Ghosts at the Grand.
2027: Fable, Final Fantasy and a lot of returning favourites
The first months of 2027 already look crowded:
| Date | Game | Game Pass |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Jan | Stranger Than Heaven (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio) | TBC |
| 4 Feb | Metro 2039 | TBC |
| 12 Feb | Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis | TBC |
| 18 Feb | Persona 4 Revival | Yes |
| 23 Feb | Fable (Playground Games) | Yes |
| 5 Mar | Gundam Rogue Orbit | TBC |
| 7 Apr | Exodus (Archetype Games) | TBC |
| 8 Apr | Final Fantasy 7 Revelation | TBC |
Fable, slipped from 2026, is Playground Games' open-world reboot of Albion — British humour, a reworked morality system, a customisable hero and more than 1,000 NPCs. Final Fantasy 7 Revelation closes the Remake trilogy and, for the first time in the series, arrives on Xbox on the same day as other platforms. Exodus is worth watching too: its studio is staffed by BioWare veterans of Mass Effect and Knights of the Old Republic, and its time-dilation mechanic means your decisions play out across years.
Further out, the undated 2027 list reads like a wish list. From Microsoft's own studios come Senua (the third Hellblade game), State of Decay 3, Clockwork Revolution from inXile and a new original Spyro: A Realm Beyond, all on Game Pass. Third parties add Kingdom Hearts 4 — with Donald, Goofy and Mickey playable for the first time — Resident Evil Code Veronica reimagined in first person, Crazy Taxi: World Tour, Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, Lords of the Fallen 2, Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3, Tomb Raider: Catalyst and a new Witcher 3 expansion, Songs of the Past.
Of the dated releases above, Game Pass is confirmed for Minecraft Dungeons 2, Gears of War: E-Day, Valor Mortis, Persona 4 Revival and Fable. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Star Wars: Galactic Racer and Final Fantasy Resonance are listed as not coming to the service, and GTA 6 is still unconfirmed. Anything marked TBC can change, so check before you skip a purchase.
If you own an Xbox Series X|S, the next three months are crowded: Control Resonant today, Gears of War: E-Day on 6 October, Modern Warfare 4 on 23 October and GTA 6 on 19 November, with a run of horror games in between. Game Pass subscribers get Gears, Minecraft Dungeons 2 and Valor Mortis as part of their subscription, while the rest will need budgeting. And once the holiday rush is over, Fable and Final Fantasy 7 Revelation are already lined up for early 2027.
Release dates and Game Pass status are as announced at the time of writing and are subject to change by publishers.
