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is an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.
It’s a weird time for Xbox, with a big leadership shakeup that has many wondering what the future of the platform looks like, and what exactly it stands for. In the meantime, though, Microsoft is forging ahead with announcements, and it just wrapped up its latest Partner Preview event, focused on upcoming titles from third-party developers. (A similar event for Xbox Studios releases streamed back in January.)
Perhaps the biggest announcement was that Hades II is finally coming to the Xbox and PS5 next month. But while the rest of the show may have been devoid of big names, it did showcase a nicely varied lineup of games coming to Microsoft’s gaming platforms.
Here are the highlights:
- Hunter: The Reckoning - Death Wish, an action-RPG about monster hunters set in the World of Darkness universe. It’s due out on Xbox and PC in the summer of 2027.
- A new game set in the Expanse universe, called Orisis Reborn, due out in spring 2027
- A return to Serious Sam’s over-the-top FPS action with Shatterverse, which is set to launch some time this year on Xbox, PS5, and PC.
- Grave Seasons, a cozy farming sim that also looks pretty spooky. It’s launching on August 14th.
- We also got a fresh look at Sega’s Stranger Than Heaven, developed by the same team behind the Yakuza series, which explores multiple eras of Japanese history but also looks to maintain the same ridiculous action and attention to detail as its spiritual predecessors. Stranger Than Heaven will be getting its own dedicated event on May 6th, while the game itself is launching “soon.”
- The latest from Annapurna Interactive is called Forever Ago, and it’s a pretty chill looking road trip game that’s launching this fall. In addition to Xbox and PC, it’s also coming to the PS5 and Switch 2.
- The superhero adventure Dispatch is making its way to Xbox later in the summer.
- Alien Deathstorm sure is a video game title, and the game looks exactly the way that name sounds: intense sci-fi horror. It’s developed by the same team behind Atomfall and is set to launch in 2027.
- The award for cutest game title goes to Frog Sqwad, a co-op puzzle game that previously launched on Steam, but will be coming to Xbox in June.
- The latest Bluey game is a photography-based adventure, and it just looks so charming. It’s launching in the fall.
- A very pretty platformer called The Eternal Life of Goldman is coming to Xbox some time this year.
- The post-apocalyptic shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is getting a big expansion called Cost of Hope, which launches on all platforms in the summer.
- Hades II is finally coming to Xbox (and the PS5) after on April 14th.
- And rounding out the show was curious detective action game set in a post-apocalyptic future called Artificial Detective, which launches in 2027.
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