Xbox Series X event recap: All the big Xbox game reveals you missed

The Xbox Games Showcase is in the books, giving us a much better look at what we'll be playing on our Xbox Series X and beyond over the next few years. The show gave us an epic gameplay premiere of Halo Infinite, and ended with a big bombshell of a surprise with the announcement of a new Fable game.

The Games Showcase also saw the reveal of new Forza Motorsport and State of Decay games, as well as fresh looks at titles like Everwild and updates on games such as Hellblade 2 and Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

If you just want to get to the games, here's a look at all the games that got announced or shown off at the Xbox Games Showcase. All of these titles will be either exclusive or launch exclusive for Xbox and Windows 10, and all of them will be available on Xbox Game Pass.

• Fable
• Forza Motorsport
• State of Decay 3
• Halo Infinite (world campaign premiere)
• Everwild
• Tell Me Why
• Avowed
• Grounded
• The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon
• As Dusk Falls
• Psychonauts 2
• Destiny 2: Beyond Light (and Destiny 2 is hitting Game Pass)
• Stalker 2
• Tetris Effect Connected
• Warhammer Darktide
• The Medium
• The Gunk
• Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis
• CrossfireX

Xbox Games Showcase live blog

All times ET - refresh for updates!

12:55 pm: Time to close the show with the game everyone's been expecting: Fable! It looks like the rumors are true, as Playground Games is making a brand new fantasy RPG for the Xbox Series X. We didn't see much beyond a quick teaser trailer, but it looks like the new Fable will retain the colorful worlds and whimsical British humor that made it such a popular series. 

12:50 pm: We're getting a deeper look at Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis, which looks like a meaty new expansion to the popular online RPG. We're also getting our first ever look at campaign footage for CrossfireX, which is a strikingly lifelike and gritty shooter that looks to take full advantage of the Seriex X.

12:46 pm: The Gunk is a cool looking third person action game that looks both colorful and grimey. It reminds me of Gears of War, if it was made by Nintendo.

Elsewhere, The Medium is a trippy horror-action game that lets you seamlessly slip between multiple realities. It reminds us a bit of Control, mixed with a really sinister take on Zelda's light and dark worlds. It's super trippy and definitely a highlight of the show so far.

12:43 pm: Up next is a dark, murky shooter with some truly terrifying enemies. Warhammer Darktide will be out in 2021.

This next trailer is starting out with a sweet montage of gamers and developers kicking back with their Xbox controllers. It looks like Tetris Effect Connected is coming to Xbox, bringing multiplayer to the unique, serene version of the world's most iconic puzzle game. I definitely got some goosebumps here -- the 2018 original is one of my favorite games in years.

12:40 pm: Here comes a brand new third-party game that looks incredibly eerie and post-apocalyptic. There's abandoned fields, weird monster-fetuses in labs and an overall sense of unease. It's Stalker 2, and it'll be out soon

12:37 pm: It looks like we're gonna switch gears to some third-party studios, starting with Bungie. Destiny 2 is coming to Xbox Series X this fall, and will even come to Xbox Game Pass in September complete with all previous expansions! We're getting a fresh look at Destiny 2: Beyond Light, a major new expansion that has some captivatingly icy new environments and plenty of exciting new enemies and abilities. 

12:32 pm: Here comes Ninja Theory with some updates on Hellblade 2: Senua's Saga. The new game will be set in Iceland, which the team surveyed in person to help make as authentic a game world as possible. And... that's it? We were hoping for more from Hellblade, honestly.

We're also checking in with Double Fine Studios, who Microsoft brought into the Xbox Game Studios family last year. The team is in the studio making Psychonauts 2, complete with Jack Black in house to help provide the game's theme music. The new song sounds appropriately whimsical in a way only Black can deliver, and is providing the backdrop to some entrancingly colorful and trippy platforming gameplay.

12:30 pm: We're not checking in with indie studio Interior/Night, who has a new interactive narrative game in the works in collaboration with Xbox. As Dusk Falls is a choice-based drama set in the American southwest, focusing on a group of strangers who were all brought together by the same mysterious secret. The game's pop-art visual style is unlike any we've seen, and we're eager to see more of it in action. 

12:24 pm: It looks like beloved 2019 RPG The Outer Worlds is getting an update. The Outer Worlds: Peril on Gorgon releases Sept. 9, promising an exciting and treacherous new location to explore.

Want something sillier? Obsidian also has a new game in the works called Grounded. It's basically Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The Game, allowing you to play as a team of extra-tiny kids that battle bugs in grass and dirt. 

But that's not all we have from Obsidian! Avowed is a new RPG has an awesome dark fantasy vibe, and looks absolutely gorgeous. It'll hit Xbox and PC sometime in the future. According to Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty, "this is Obsidian at their best."

12:20 pm: Another world premiere, this time from Dontnod. Tell Me Why looks like Life is Strange with a serious next-gen upgrade, with impressively lifelike characters that still sport Dontnod's signaturely colorful, comic-esque style. If you like emotional narrative games, this should be on your radar.

Meanwhile, Moon Studios confirmed that Ori and the Will of the Wisps is getting optimized for Xbox Series X, complete with 120 fps framerates at 4K resolution.

12:18 pm: Up next is Rare with Everwild. The game's giving us a mix of anime and Pixar vibes, and seems to be centered around harnessing nature and forging connections with other living things. It seems like a soothing change of pace from shooters, and we're eager to see more of it.

12:16 pm: You can't have a big Xbox event without Forza, so here comes Turn 10. The next Forza game will simply be called Forza Motorsport, suggesting that perhaps the series will take a long-term, games-as-service model for the next few years. We didn't see much, but it looks pretty.

12:13 pm: Here comes our first world premiere from Xbox Game Studios: State of Decay 3! Looks like we're in for another big post-apocalyptic action game, with a woman exploring a bloody, snowy trail with a crossbow in hand. And this time, there are zombie deer!

Phil Spencer is now on screen, promising 5 new first-party reveals. He's stressing the usual talking points: Going big on Game Pass, allowing you to play your games where you want to, and so on. He calls Series X the most "consistently powerful next-generation console," which is an interestingly specific moniker.

12:12 pm: Time to get an update from 343. Halo Infinite is reportedly "several times larger than the last 2 Halo games combined," and has been built to fully take advantage of Xbox Series X with huge game worlds and smooth 60 fps gameplay.

12:06 pm: Here's where it gets interesting: Halo Infinite is open world! Or at least that seems to be the case, as Chief can be seen pulling up an interactive map and marking a waypoint for his next destination. Otherwise, this looks like classic Halo -- plasma grenades, battle rifles, deployable armor abilities -- and it looks great.

More classic and remixed weapons including the Plasma Carbine are here, and the soundtrack sounds like a lovely new take on the iconic Halo themes. Also, the rumors were true: Master Chief has a grappling hook, and it looks super fun to play with both in and out of combat.

We now see a Banished leader, who reveals that the USNC were defeated by them months ago in some kind of war. This Banished member is giving a decidedly impassioned speech challenging Chief to fight, revealing some neat facial detail technology in the process.

12 pm: Here. we. go! We're getting right into things with Halo Infinite, starting with a look at Master Chief's Mjolnir armor being constructed. And now for some gameplay!

The game is set 187 days after the USNC "lost," and Chief and his new companion are making an emergency landing in a ship. These appears to be some tension between this mysterious new man and Chief, who reveals that they're up against the Banished faction.

I'm getting serious Halo 1 vibes -- the first thing we see from Chief's first person perspective is a Halo ring, before he guns down a few Grunts. Halo is back, and it feels good to be home. It looks like sprinting is back from Halo 5, as is the series signature vehicular exploration.

11:50 am: Yuji Naka from Square Enix has  a new studio titled Balan Company, and a new game to show off. Balan Wonderland looks like a colorful 3D platformer that will let you change outfits to gain new abilities. We could definitely use more whimsical games like this in the Xbox ecosystem.

11:47 am: Nothing like a good indie game montage. We're seeing promising looking titles like Last Stop, Exo One and 12 Minutes, all of which will be optimized for Xbox Series X.

11:45 am: We just saw a trailer for Hello Neighbor 2, which should deliver more of the creepy and colorful survival action that made the original such a hit.

11:40 am: A bunch of YouTubers are now on screen to talk about their favorite Xbox and Halo memories. The chat is not exactly having it, but it's nice to see everyone's enthusiasm for Microsoft's consoles and games over the years.

11:35 am: Another world premiere trailer, this time focused on an adorable indie RPG called Echo Generation. Think Stranger Things meets Minecraft, with Final Fantasy style combat to bring it all together. 

11:30 am: We're now getting another look at Watch Dogs: Legion, which just had its own huge reveal event at last week's Ubisoft Forward event. Not much in the way of new footage here, but Ubisoft's open-world London hacking game is looking as fun as ever.

11:26 am: Panelists such as Alanah Pearce and Danny O'Dwyer have joined the stream, giving their hopes and predictions (fingers crossed for Fable 4!) and speculating on what we'll see from Halo Infinite.

11:17 am: Here comes another world premiere. This time it's EchoMecha, a gorgeous looking futuristic shooter that seems to feature giant robots and metallic mech monsters. It's out in 2021, and will be free to play.

11:15 am: Here's our first early announcement of the day! It looks like Dragon Quest XI S is coming to Xbox and Windows 10, and will be available on Game Pass on December 14. This will be the first time you can play Square Enix's RPG series on an Xbox console.

11 am: The official Xbox Games Showcase pre-show is kicking off over at Geoff Keighley's YouTube channel. Geoff is joined by hosts such as Alanah Pearce, Austin Evans and Jacksepticeye, who will provide some analysis and predictions before the big event. Will we get any surprise early reveals?

9:13 am: The Halo account is getting in on the hype, getting fans excited for the world premiere of Halo Infinite in just a few hours. Outside of event chatter, a Microsoft exec may have let slip the release window for Xbox Series X.

8 am: It's show day! Xbox marketing lead Aaron Greenberg took to Twitter recently to properly set expectations, reminding fans that this will be an hour-long games only show. You can also catch an exclusive YouTube-only pre-show over at Geoff Keighly's The Game Awards channel starting at 8 a.m. PT/11 a.m. ET.