90%
Highly Likely
[UPDATE - March 18, 2026] At least one of Tom Warren's rumors, the one about Kiln's release month, turned out to be true now that Double Fine has set the game's launch for April 23.
[ORIGINAL STORY] Today, The Verge's Tom Warren has published some updates on the Xbox schedule for this year. In 2026, the Xbox brand celebrates its 25th anniversary, and Microsoft is trying to launch games in four of its biggest franchises: Forza Horizon, Halo, Gears, and Fable.
We already know the date of Playground's Forza Horizon 6, which will be released on May 19, 2026, as announced during the recent Xbox Developer Direct 2026. Warren adds that his sources indicate Halo Studios (formerly known as 343 Industries) is targeting a Summer release for Halo Campaign Evolved, the single-player remake of the 2001 game that launched the first-person shooter series and originally captured the interest of many gamers in the Xbox brand.
Fable is targeting Fall, as Playground officially shared, and Gears of War: E-Day, the prequel featuring fan-favorite characters Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago, is also aiming to debut in the latter half of the year. In both cases, Warren added that Microsoft is very mindful of keeping apart from Rockstar's juggernaut, Grand Theft Auto VI, which is set to crash on the market with all its weight on November 19. Another GTA VI delay is still not out of the realm of possibility, but Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has confirmed earlier this week that the marketing campaign will begin in the Summer, so both Rockstar and Take-Two are honed in to ensure the game isn't delayed a third time. As such, Microsoft will try to release both games as early as possible before November 19. After would be more complicated, as December isn't traditionally a great time to release games.
According to Warren's sources, Xbox is also preparing to launch Double Fine's new multiplayer game Kiln in April, as well as new Starfield content (and PS5 release) "soon". On that note, a Polish website has just come out to share that the game will launch on PlayStation 5 on April 7, though that remains a rumor for now.
Bethesda's Fallout 3 remaster is reportedly still in "active development" to ensure that it is as polished as possible. Warren doesn't share any date in his report, but it sounds like he doesn't expect the game to be released this year. However, he reckons Xbox fans will get a new controller this year. These are supposed to be next-generation controllers (although it's unclear whether they will add haptic feedback or adaptive triggers-like tech, inspired by the PS5's DualSense), with built-in Wi-Fi connectivity to reduce latency in Xbox Cloud Gaming. On that note, The Verge's journalist adds that Microsoft is "close" to testing free ad-supported Xbox Cloud Gaming streaming with Xbox Insiders ahead of a wider rollout later in 2026.
What do you make of these Xbox plans? Let us know in the comments below.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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