Playground Games and More Will Lead Microsoft’s ‘Huge’ January Xbox Developer Direct

Although Microsoft only made a few announcements at The Game Awards, the company is promising that it has plenty more in store that will be revealed during January’s Xbox Developer Direct.

Microsoft’s Game Awards Announcements

Microsoft wasn’t totally absent from The Game Awards news cycle last night, even if the company did choose to keep things pretty quiet. During the event, the biggest piece of Microsoft news was likely that South of Midnight would be coming to both PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2 in spring 2025. That confirmation came via a post on X from Compulsion Games.

Additionally, Blizzard stepped into the spotlight to drop an April 28, 2026 release date for Diablo 4’s next expansion: Lord of Hatred. Gamers also learned that they can pre-order the expansion now to gain early access to the Paladin class in Diablo 4.

Those two pieces of news are fairly exciting, but aside from that, Microsoft and Xbox didn’t have any other significant reveals during the show. Some fans were hoping to learn more about Fable, Gears, or even a surprise Xbox announcement, but it sounds like any other major reveals and updates are going to be waiting until the January Xbox Developer Direct.

What’s coming at the January xbox Developer Direct?

In anticipation of the fairly light night at The Game Awards, Microsoft’s president of game content and studios Matt Booty explained to Variety that the company considers The Game Awards a good button to end the year on, but that the team is looking to early 2026 for the next big round of reveals and announcements.

“I can’t share exactly what’s there, but we’ve got a lot of stuff that we’re shipping next year. In fact, usually Dev Direct is about highlighting what’s coming up for the year ahead. This year, we’ve got more stuff coming up than we can fit in one show. . . So I will tell you that Playground Games is going to be in the Dev Direct, but we’ll have more stuff next year to ship than we can fit into one Dev Direct show in January, which is a good place to be.”

The confirmation that Playground Games will be prominently featured in the January Dev Direct seems to indicate that Fable and Horizon Forza 6 could be a few of the featured titles.

Additionally, Booty’s comments seem to suggest that additional Developer Directs may follow shortly after January’s with a focus on other projects that are in the works for later 2026. Xbox games are still waiting to find out what is next for Gears of War and Halo, so it seems likely that news on those franchises will be coming sometime after the new year.

At this time, there is no confirmed date or time for the Xbox Developer Direct in January.

The post Playground Games and More Will Lead Microsoft’s ‘Huge’ January Xbox Developer Direct appeared first on VICE.