The best upcoming Xbox Series X games
The Xbox Series X and Series S have now been out for over a year, bringing better resolution, higher frame rates, and ray tracing to gamers around the world. These upcoming Xbox Series X games promise to continue to show off all those bells and whistles in fun, new experiences.
If you’re eager to find out what Microsoft has in store for the years ahead, we’ve rounded up every game confirmed so far, including new offerings, franchise installments, and ports of existing titles. We’re looking beyond the first-party projects here to encompass all the great games coming to this powerful new piece of gaming hardware.
Further reading
2022 games
Saints Row — August 23, 2022
The Saints are back in town, but it’s a brand new town and an all-new gang of Saints. This reboot is completely overhauling the story the games had built up, which makes sense considering how impossible it would be to follow up where that story left off. Now, the team wants to make a more grounded story and game, though we still do see plenty of comedy and arcade-style gameplay that set it apart from something trying to be strictly realistic. There’s been a distinct lack of competition for GTA in the third-person, open-world crime space, so we’re glad to see a new attempt to spice up that genre. This reboot will hit on August 23.
Gotham Knights — October 25, 2022
A spiritual successor to the Batman: Arkham series, Gotham Knights is a co-op action RPG starring Batgirl, Red Hood, Robin, and Nightwing. The game was slated to launch sometime in 2021 on Xbox Series X, but after multiple delays, has finally settled on a release date of October 25, 2022. Although a successor to the Arkham games, Gotham Knights isn’t being developed by Rocksteady Studios (we’ll get to what that team is working on in a moment). Instead Warner Bros Montreal, the studio behind Arkham Origins, is at the helm.
Scorn — October 2022
First-person horror game Scorn drops players into a nightmarish, puzzle-filled world. The game has been in the works since 2013 and is finally being released as the ultimate horror experience on Xbox. According to developer Ebb Software, the world of Scorn draws visual inspiration from Swiss painter H.R. Giger and Polish painter Zdzislaw Beksinski, and conceptual inspiration has come from works by notable writers Franz Kafka, Thomas Ligotti, and J.G. Ballard, among others. This is going to be a nightmarish experience like no other.
Starfield — November 11, 2022
Starfield is Bethesda’s first original RPG in 25 years. Bethesda has not revealed much outside of a teaser shown at E3 2018 and a second one at E3 2021. We don’t have many of the important details yet, but we do know that the game will be a single-player experience and come exclusively to Xbox on November 11.
Redfall — 2022
The newest game from Arkane Austin is a brand new and very exciting concept. Set in an open world called Redfall, this will be a co-op-focused shooter where players are let loose on an island infested with vampires. The sun has been blocked out, making you, a human, constantly in danger in a sort of 30 Days of Night-style scenario. Using a suite of guns, magic, and anti-vampire tech, you and your squad need to survive against the bloodthirsty hunters.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns — 2022
The Marvel train keeps on trucking with a collaboration no one saw coming. Firaxis, makers of the insanely popular XCOM and XCOM 2 revivals, are taking on the Marvel license with the somewhat niche Midnight Suns. Taking cues from their tactical, turn-based games, this game won’t be nearly as brutal as their prior games in that space. You will lead a team of occult-focused heroes, including fan favorites like Blade and Ghostrider, to face off against a demonic threat. While originally scheduled for early 2022, it has since been delayed until the second half of that year.
A Plague Tale Requiem — 2022
The sequel to the hit indie title A Plague Tale: Innocence, this game has a lot of similarities to the Senua games. It is a smaller, more focused title with an emphasis on story, strong combat design, and graphical design that is almost unbelievable for the size of the team. The game will be a direct follow-up to the first game, following Amicia and Hugo, and will arrive sometime in 2022.
Hogwarts Legacy — 2022
The long-rumored open-world Harry Potter game is finally here, and it has a name. Hogwarts Legacy is set in the world of Harry Potter, of course, but new developer Portkey Games appears to be taking the story in a different direction. Although the game was announced during Sony’s September PS5 event, Hogwarts Legacy is also launching on Series X. We don’t know when that’s happening exactly, with the latest updating being a loose holiday 2022.
Sonic Frontiers — 2022
Don’t call it a Breath of the Wild clone just yet, but Sonic is going open world in his next 3D adventure. This seems like a natural fit for the speedy blue hedgehog, although we are still only cautiously optimistic considering his legacy of 3D titles. For now, with so little seen, and only a holiday 2022 release date known, we can only hope that this change to the formula can reinvigorate this iconic character’s status in the gaming industry.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League — 2023
Rocksteady isn’t making Gotham Knights because it’s busy working on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. It’s one of a few confirmed next-gen exclusives, launching on Series X sometime in early 2023 after numerous delays. We don’t know much about the game yet, but it takes place in the Batman: Arkham universe and is set in an open-world Metropolis. We also know the four playable characters in the game: Harley Quinn, King Shark, Deadshot, and Captain Boomerang.
Games with no release windows
Perfect Dark
The first game from a brand new Microsoft studio called The Initiative was revealed to be a revival of the long-dormant Perfect Dark series. We haven’t seen this espionage sci-fi FPS since Perfect Dark: Zero launched with the Xbox 360, but the original N64 game is still considered one of the all-time greatest FPS games. The game has only had a teaser announcing its existence, so we know next to nothing about it, though we hope it will stay true to the stealth and gadget-based gameplay of the original. For now, we have no clue as to when it will arrive, but it likely won’t be until 2023 at the earliest.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl
Microsoft didn’t show much of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 in its initial showcase, but at E3 2021, we got a new name, the first look at some gameplay, and the release date of April 28 for the Series X, which was first delayed to December 8, only to be put on indefinite hold due to the conflict in Ukraine impacting the developers. A PC-exclusive series for many years, this survival horror shooter will likely stretch the limits of the Series X when it launches. If you need more horsepower, it’s coming to PC, too.
Dragon Age 4
Technically, Dragon Age 4 isn’t confirmed for Xbox Series X. It’s just confirmed as a “next-gen experience.” As a massive third-party IP, though, it’ll probably launch on Series X. We don’t have a release date, or really any information about the next Dragon Age game, but don’t expect it soon. At best, the release date won’t be until 2022 or 2023.
The Elder Scrolls VI
Just like Starfield, Elder Scrolls VI was announced at E3 2018 and is still years away from release. In fact, Pete Hines of Bethesda recently revealed on Twitter that the Elder Scrolls VI wouldn’t launch until after Starfield. With the Xbox Series X, we can expect more expansive maps and faster loading times, though there is no definitive date as to when we might set foot once again on the continent of Tamriel.
Alan Wake 2
The long-awaited sequel to what was originally a timed Xbox 360 exclusive, Alan Wake 2 promises to ramp up the horror like never before. It’s been over a decade since the original game, but we have hope for this writer’s return via the DLC chapter in Control that brought those two universes together. All we know is that this game won’t be coming until 2023 at the earliest, so there’s still a long wait ahead for the next chapter in this dark tale.
State of Decay 3
State of Decay 3 exists, and that’s about all we know. A follow-up to Undead Labs’ open-world zombie game a few years ago, State of Decay 3 is launching exclusively on Xbox Series X and PC and will be coming to Game Pass on release day.
As Dusk Falls
As Dusk Falls is the first game from Interior Night, a U.K.-based studio made up of former Sony and Quantic Dream developers (known for work on Detroit: Become Human and Beyond Two Souls). True to form, As Dusk Falls is a narrative-driven adventure game involving two families over the course of two generations. We haven’t seen any gameplay, but it looks like As Dusk Falls could use hand-painted images to tell its story, like a beautiful graphic novel playing out on screen. We’ll know when the game launches on Xbox Series X, PC, and Xbox One, probably in 2021.
Avowed
Avowed is probably still a few years off, especially with The Outer Worlds DLC shipping soon. We know, however, that it’s coming, and it’s coming exclusively to Xbox Series X and PC. It’s a presumably open-world, first-person RPG similar to Skyrim. The game takes place in Eora, the same world as Pillars of Eternity, and features melee combat and spell-casting, at least based on the teaser.
The Outer Worlds 2
Revealed at E3 2021, The Outer Worlds 2 is the next installment to the small, well-received sci-fi RPG from Obsidian entertainment. We only got the smallest of announcement trailers, but based on just that, we know that the same level of humor and self-awareness will be in the sequel. Despite being a sequel, the game will focus on a brand new cast in all-new environments. The teaser ends without a release date, so this one may take quite a while to arrive.
Warhammer 40K: Darktide
We still don’t know much about Warhammer 40K: Darktide, but it comes from Vermintide developer Fatshark, so that provides a pretty big clue. It’s a four-player co-op shooter where you take on mobs of enemies, similar to Left 4 Dead. It’s launching as a timed exclusive on PC and Xbox Series X, though we don’t have a release window yet.
Fable
The Fable franchise is getting a reboot with Fable, developed by Forza Horizon studio Playground Games. We don’t know much about the game, short of a vague announcement trailer shown during Microsoft’s July Xbox Series X showcase. We don’t have a release date yet, so it’ll likely be many moons before we dive back into the fantasy world Lionhead created years ago. We do know, however, that the game is coming to Xbox Series X and PC, and that it’s launching on Game Pass.
Wonder Woman
If you’re more of a DC fan, the teaser for the upcoming Wonder Woman from Monolith should be on your radar. The teaser only showed glimpses of the iconic character, her whip, and some narration. That’s not much to go on, but we do know that this is the studio that created the very unique nemesis system with the Shadow of games set in the Lord of the Rings universe. We hope to see that implemented in this game too, but for now, not even a release window is known, let alone how the game will play.
Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2
Set in a dark and reimagined Seattle, Bloodlines 2 is the sequel to a 2004 cult classic. In this action RPG, you play as a human who is killed and revived as a thinblood — aka a relatively weak vampire. You can customize your character via a handful of upgradable disciplines and even pledge your allegiance to a vampire clan and navigate the World of Darkness, an alternative Earth where vampires, werewolves, demons, and other creatures shape human history. Vampires must stay hidden from the human race as much as they can, but rogue vampires have been publicly attacking the population of Seattle and causing tension between the city’s clans. Your decisions will change the balance of power in the city.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
Hellblade II is the next entry in the Hellblade franchise from developer Ninja Theory. Senua’s Saga is a direct sequel to Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice, which focused on a broken Celtic warrior who was haunted by visions and voices in her head as she fought for the soul of her lover. The developers of the first game tapped neuroscientists and people who experience psychosis to create the eeriness of the first Hellblade, which we expect to carry on in the second.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a narrative-focused adventure game that focuses on the events that occur between Gollum finding the One Ring and the start of the Lord of the Rings story we all know and love. Deadalic Entertainment inked a deal with Middle-Earth Enterprises to develop this project, meaning the game will be more akin to the books, not the movies.
Star Wars Eclipse
In a very strange marriage of studio and IP, we have Quantic Dream, best known for their choice-driven narrative experiences like Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human, announcing a new game set in the Star Wars universe. Star Wars Eclipse was shown off with just a CGI trailer so far, but if those visuals are anything to go by, this game will at least be visually impressive. We’re eager to see if the branching narrative storytelling this studio is known for can create a compelling story in this sci-fi setting.
Everwild
Announced during the XO19 event by Microsoft, Everwild is the new title from Rare Studios. Everwild is an adventure game with a similar art style to that of Rare’s Sea of Thieves. There has not been a confirmed release date or much information about the gameplay. However, check out the trailer for Everwild to get a glimpse of what the game will look like graphically.
Editors’ Recommendations
The Xbox Series X and Series S have now been out for over a year, bringing better resolution, higher frame rates, and ray tracing to gamers around the world. These upcoming Xbox Series X games promise to continue to show off all those bells and whistles in fun, new experiences.
If you’re eager to find out what Microsoft has in store for the years ahead, we’ve rounded up every game confirmed so far, including new offerings, franchise installments, and ports of existing titles. We’re looking beyond the first-party projects here to encompass all the great games coming to this powerful new piece of gaming hardware.
Further reading
2022 games
Saints Row — August 23, 2022
The Saints are back in town, but it’s a brand new town and an all-new gang of Saints. This reboot is completely overhauling the story the games had built up, which makes sense considering how impossible it would be to follow up where that story left off. Now, the team wants to make a more grounded story and game, though we still do see plenty of comedy and arcade-style gameplay that set it apart from something trying to be strictly realistic. There’s been a distinct lack of competition for GTA in the third-person, open-world crime space, so we’re glad to see a new attempt to spice up that genre. This reboot will hit on August 23.
Gotham Knights — October 25, 2022
A spiritual successor to the Batman: Arkham series, Gotham Knights is a co-op action RPG starring Batgirl, Red Hood, Robin, and Nightwing. The game was slated to launch sometime in 2021 on Xbox Series X, but after multiple delays, has finally settled on a release date of October 25, 2022. Although a successor to the Arkham games, Gotham Knights isn’t being developed by Rocksteady Studios (we’ll get to what that team is working on in a moment). Instead Warner Bros Montreal, the studio behind Arkham Origins, is at the helm.
Scorn — October 2022
First-person horror game Scorn drops players into a nightmarish, puzzle-filled world. The game has been in the works since 2013 and is finally being released as the ultimate horror experience on Xbox. According to developer Ebb Software, the world of Scorn draws visual inspiration from Swiss painter H.R. Giger and Polish painter Zdzislaw Beksinski, and conceptual inspiration has come from works by notable writers Franz Kafka, Thomas Ligotti, and J.G. Ballard, among others. This is going to be a nightmarish experience like no other.
Starfield — November 11, 2022
Starfield is Bethesda’s first original RPG in 25 years. Bethesda has not revealed much outside of a teaser shown at E3 2018 and a second one at E3 2021. We don’t have many of the important details yet, but we do know that the game will be a single-player experience and come exclusively to Xbox on November 11.
Redfall — 2022
The newest game from Arkane Austin is a brand new and very exciting concept. Set in an open world called Redfall, this will be a co-op-focused shooter where players are let loose on an island infested with vampires. The sun has been blocked out, making you, a human, constantly in danger in a sort of 30 Days of Night-style scenario. Using a suite of guns, magic, and anti-vampire tech, you and your squad need to survive against the bloodthirsty hunters.
Marvel’s Midnight Suns — 2022
The Marvel train keeps on trucking with a collaboration no one saw coming. Firaxis, makers of the insanely popular XCOM and XCOM 2 revivals, are taking on the Marvel license with the somewhat niche Midnight Suns. Taking cues from their tactical, turn-based games, this game won’t be nearly as brutal as their prior games in that space. You will lead a team of occult-focused heroes, including fan favorites like Blade and Ghostrider, to face off against a demonic threat. While originally scheduled for early 2022, it has since been delayed until the second half of that year.
A Plague Tale Requiem — 2022
The sequel to the hit indie title A Plague Tale: Innocence, this game has a lot of similarities to the Senua games. It is a smaller, more focused title with an emphasis on story, strong combat design, and graphical design that is almost unbelievable for the size of the team. The game will be a direct follow-up to the first game, following Amicia and Hugo, and will arrive sometime in 2022.
Hogwarts Legacy — 2022
The long-rumored open-world Harry Potter game is finally here, and it has a name. Hogwarts Legacy is set in the world of Harry Potter, of course, but new developer Portkey Games appears to be taking the story in a different direction. Although the game was announced during Sony’s September PS5 event, Hogwarts Legacy is also launching on Series X. We don’t know when that’s happening exactly, with the latest updating being a loose holiday 2022.
Sonic Frontiers — 2022
Don’t call it a Breath of the Wild clone just yet, but Sonic is going open world in his next 3D adventure. This seems like a natural fit for the speedy blue hedgehog, although we are still only cautiously optimistic considering his legacy of 3D titles. For now, with so little seen, and only a holiday 2022 release date known, we can only hope that this change to the formula can reinvigorate this iconic character’s status in the gaming industry.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League — 2023
Rocksteady isn’t making Gotham Knights because it’s busy working on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. It’s one of a few confirmed next-gen exclusives, launching on Series X sometime in early 2023 after numerous delays. We don’t know much about the game yet, but it takes place in the Batman: Arkham universe and is set in an open-world Metropolis. We also know the four playable characters in the game: Harley Quinn, King Shark, Deadshot, and Captain Boomerang.
Games with no release windows
Perfect Dark
The first game from a brand new Microsoft studio called The Initiative was revealed to be a revival of the long-dormant Perfect Dark series. We haven’t seen this espionage sci-fi FPS since Perfect Dark: Zero launched with the Xbox 360, but the original N64 game is still considered one of the all-time greatest FPS games. The game has only had a teaser announcing its existence, so we know next to nothing about it, though we hope it will stay true to the stealth and gadget-based gameplay of the original. For now, we have no clue as to when it will arrive, but it likely won’t be until 2023 at the earliest.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl
Microsoft didn’t show much of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 in its initial showcase, but at E3 2021, we got a new name, the first look at some gameplay, and the release date of April 28 for the Series X, which was first delayed to December 8, only to be put on indefinite hold due to the conflict in Ukraine impacting the developers. A PC-exclusive series for many years, this survival horror shooter will likely stretch the limits of the Series X when it launches. If you need more horsepower, it’s coming to PC, too.
Dragon Age 4
Technically, Dragon Age 4 isn’t confirmed for Xbox Series X. It’s just confirmed as a “next-gen experience.” As a massive third-party IP, though, it’ll probably launch on Series X. We don’t have a release date, or really any information about the next Dragon Age game, but don’t expect it soon. At best, the release date won’t be until 2022 or 2023.
The Elder Scrolls VI
Just like Starfield, Elder Scrolls VI was announced at E3 2018 and is still years away from release. In fact, Pete Hines of Bethesda recently revealed on Twitter that the Elder Scrolls VI wouldn’t launch until after Starfield. With the Xbox Series X, we can expect more expansive maps and faster loading times, though there is no definitive date as to when we might set foot once again on the continent of Tamriel.
Alan Wake 2
The long-awaited sequel to what was originally a timed Xbox 360 exclusive, Alan Wake 2 promises to ramp up the horror like never before. It’s been over a decade since the original game, but we have hope for this writer’s return via the DLC chapter in Control that brought those two universes together. All we know is that this game won’t be coming until 2023 at the earliest, so there’s still a long wait ahead for the next chapter in this dark tale.
State of Decay 3
State of Decay 3 exists, and that’s about all we know. A follow-up to Undead Labs’ open-world zombie game a few years ago, State of Decay 3 is launching exclusively on Xbox Series X and PC and will be coming to Game Pass on release day.
As Dusk Falls
As Dusk Falls is the first game from Interior Night, a U.K.-based studio made up of former Sony and Quantic Dream developers (known for work on Detroit: Become Human and Beyond Two Souls). True to form, As Dusk Falls is a narrative-driven adventure game involving two families over the course of two generations. We haven’t seen any gameplay, but it looks like As Dusk Falls could use hand-painted images to tell its story, like a beautiful graphic novel playing out on screen. We’ll know when the game launches on Xbox Series X, PC, and Xbox One, probably in 2021.
Avowed
Avowed is probably still a few years off, especially with The Outer Worlds DLC shipping soon. We know, however, that it’s coming, and it’s coming exclusively to Xbox Series X and PC. It’s a presumably open-world, first-person RPG similar to Skyrim. The game takes place in Eora, the same world as Pillars of Eternity, and features melee combat and spell-casting, at least based on the teaser.
The Outer Worlds 2
Revealed at E3 2021, The Outer Worlds 2 is the next installment to the small, well-received sci-fi RPG from Obsidian entertainment. We only got the smallest of announcement trailers, but based on just that, we know that the same level of humor and self-awareness will be in the sequel. Despite being a sequel, the game will focus on a brand new cast in all-new environments. The teaser ends without a release date, so this one may take quite a while to arrive.
Warhammer 40K: Darktide
We still don’t know much about Warhammer 40K: Darktide, but it comes from Vermintide developer Fatshark, so that provides a pretty big clue. It’s a four-player co-op shooter where you take on mobs of enemies, similar to Left 4 Dead. It’s launching as a timed exclusive on PC and Xbox Series X, though we don’t have a release window yet.
Fable
The Fable franchise is getting a reboot with Fable, developed by Forza Horizon studio Playground Games. We don’t know much about the game, short of a vague announcement trailer shown during Microsoft’s July Xbox Series X showcase. We don’t have a release date yet, so it’ll likely be many moons before we dive back into the fantasy world Lionhead created years ago. We do know, however, that the game is coming to Xbox Series X and PC, and that it’s launching on Game Pass.
Wonder Woman
If you’re more of a DC fan, the teaser for the upcoming Wonder Woman from Monolith should be on your radar. The teaser only showed glimpses of the iconic character, her whip, and some narration. That’s not much to go on, but we do know that this is the studio that created the very unique nemesis system with the Shadow of games set in the Lord of the Rings universe. We hope to see that implemented in this game too, but for now, not even a release window is known, let alone how the game will play.
Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2
Set in a dark and reimagined Seattle, Bloodlines 2 is the sequel to a 2004 cult classic. In this action RPG, you play as a human who is killed and revived as a thinblood — aka a relatively weak vampire. You can customize your character via a handful of upgradable disciplines and even pledge your allegiance to a vampire clan and navigate the World of Darkness, an alternative Earth where vampires, werewolves, demons, and other creatures shape human history. Vampires must stay hidden from the human race as much as they can, but rogue vampires have been publicly attacking the population of Seattle and causing tension between the city’s clans. Your decisions will change the balance of power in the city.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II
Hellblade II is the next entry in the Hellblade franchise from developer Ninja Theory. Senua’s Saga is a direct sequel to Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice, which focused on a broken Celtic warrior who was haunted by visions and voices in her head as she fought for the soul of her lover. The developers of the first game tapped neuroscientists and people who experience psychosis to create the eeriness of the first Hellblade, which we expect to carry on in the second.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is a narrative-focused adventure game that focuses on the events that occur between Gollum finding the One Ring and the start of the Lord of the Rings story we all know and love. Deadalic Entertainment inked a deal with Middle-Earth Enterprises to develop this project, meaning the game will be more akin to the books, not the movies.
Star Wars Eclipse
In a very strange marriage of studio and IP, we have Quantic Dream, best known for their choice-driven narrative experiences like Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human, announcing a new game set in the Star Wars universe. Star Wars Eclipse was shown off with just a CGI trailer so far, but if those visuals are anything to go by, this game will at least be visually impressive. We’re eager to see if the branching narrative storytelling this studio is known for can create a compelling story in this sci-fi setting.
Everwild
Announced during the XO19 event by Microsoft, Everwild is the new title from Rare Studios. Everwild is an adventure game with a similar art style to that of Rare’s Sea of Thieves. There has not been a confirmed release date or much information about the gameplay. However, check out the trailer for Everwild to get a glimpse of what the game will look like graphically.
Editors’ Recommendations
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