With the recent Xbox Developer_Direct 2026 showcase having been seen as quite successful thanks to strong showings, new reports are now indicating that Microsoft might hold another one this year. In a recent episode of the Xbox Two podcast, Windows Central’s Jez Corden has spoken about hearing that Microsoft is exploring the idea of a second Developer_Direct for later this year.
Discussing the games that were showcased last week—Fable, Forza Horizon 6, Beast of Reincarnation and Kiln—Corden, along with his co-host, ended the subject by talking about more showcases planned for later in the year. He also noted that Microsoft has a “pretty decent amount of stuff” that it still hasn’t shown yet.
“I have heard that they are exploring doing another one this year,” said Corden. “So don’t be surprised if we do get another [Developer_Direct] this year at some point. Don’t know when. But they’ve got a pretty decent amount of stuff to show.” He went on to note that he had “specifically heard directly that they’re exploring for this year.”
The two also discussed whether the next showcase would follow a similar format to what we saw with the Developer_Direct, or if it would instead be closer to Xbox’s more traditional partner showcases where third-party games are the focus. One of these slated for March last year was also noted as being cancelled, with the two hosts discussing how the Final Fantasy ports for Xbox were originally supposed to be announced there.
As a whole, the two also discussed being quite impressed by the Developer_Direct, with Corden noting that “I was pleasantly surprised by everything.” He pointed to Beast of Reincarnation being especially pleasantly surprising.
Among other things, Xbox Developer_Direct 2026 gave us our first proper look at Game Freak’s Beast of Reincarnation, with its developers providing a thorough deep dive about its gameplay, story, and progression systems. The main story will focus on Emma, who must travel a depiction of Japan set in the year 4062 AD alongside a wolf-like companion named Koo. While its combat includes what you would expect from a hack-and-slash action adventure game, there are also elements of RPGs, including a skill tree, as well as the ability to teach Koo new abilities of its own.
Game director Kito Furushima has also confirmed that Beast of Reincarnation is being developed by a small team at Game Freak working alongside partner companies. In a statement, he said that the overall team is “quite large” thanks to these partner studios.
“The team is quite large, as you can imagine, but I will note that it’s not all folks internally here at Game Freak,” he explained. “We managed to seek out a lot of partner companies to work with us, companies, studios that are able to realize the vision of this game in the way that we wanted to make it, so we’re lucky to have a lot of people working on it externally as well.”
For more details on the other games that were unveiled, check out the morality system of Fable, the Japanese setting of Forza Horizon 6, and Double Fine’s new pottery-based party brawler, Kiln.
