2026 is going to be an incredible year for Xbox players – you might even call it a… fabled year. To celebrate, we’re kicking it off with the fourth installment of our Developer_Direct broadcast on January 22, bringing you news, new gameplay, and insights directly from the incredible teams working on titles coming this year.
Presented by the game creators themselves, Developer_Direct will once again give you an inside look at not just the games, but the studios working to bring them to life. Fittingly for Xbox’s 25th anniversary year, that includes the return of some of our most legendary franchises, which rub shoulders with a brand new title from one of Japan’s most beloved studios.
The show includes not one but two titles from Playground Games, with the UK studio bringing us a first extended look at Fable, as well as the debut of gameplay for Forza Horizon 6. We’ll also be taking a trip to Tokyo to visit the legendary Game Freak, offering a first in-depth look at Beast of Reincarnation, which we revealed at Xbox Games Showcase last year.
You can tune in at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK on January 22 to see all the latest on:
Fable – Playground Games welcomes players back to the fairytale land of Albion, with the first in-depth look at Fable – one of 2026’s most anticipated titles. Devs from the Playground team will unveil the magic and mischief that awaits players in this fresh new beginning for the franchise, including a first look at some stunning new gameplay. Of course, the core themes of Fable will all be there – choice, consequence, drama, action, British humor and (of course) chickens, all reimagined for existing fans and new players alike.
Forza Horizon 6 – The Forza team from Playground Games will share a deep-dive on the much-anticipated Forza Horizon 6 as the open world racer takes players to the beautiful and contrasting landscapes of Japan. The segment will deep-dive into a very first look at gameplay, including reveals of new features – and how Japan comes to life in this stunning new installment.
Beast of Reincarnation – Join us as we delve into Game Freak’s intense one-person, one-dog action RPG. For the first time, Game Freak will reveal details of our protagonist Emma’s innovative plant manipulation actions and gameplay with her canine companion, Koo. In Beast of Reincarnation, a profound and dangerous world unfolds in post-apocalyptic Japan. Discover the development secrets behind its creation in Developer_Direct.
Stay tuned to our official social channels for more from Developer_Direct, airing on Thursday, January 22 at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK.
The Game Awards 2025 ended its run of reveals by announcing Highguard, a free-to-play hero shooter set to release on January 26th.
It left many confused, as one of the biggest events in the video game industry ended with a game that felt out of place.
The Game Awards 2025 Started Strong
The show was getting good momentum. A new Mega Man, Ace Combat 8, two new Tomb Raider games, plus they even had Larian Studios reveal that they’ve been working on a new Divinity game, and dropped the bombshell that Casey Hudson (Mass Effect, Star Wars: The Old Republic) and his new studio will be working on a new RPG called Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic. These are the kinds of reveals that we believe would have been a solid mic drop before the Game of the Year presentation.
It felt like an awkward trip while crossing the finish line after a long marathon, as everyone’s watching a slow-motion stumble. With the massive reveals before it, in our minds, surely Geoff and company left the best for last.
Not this year. They went with Highguard.
It was a choice that broke the tradition of shows like TGA leaving on a high note. That “we have one last thing to show” moment fizzled out into nothing. It’s unfortunate, as it was a decent show, all things considered. A nice glimpse into 2026 and beyond. But that final reveal made us realize that, in the end, The Game Awards is also just a business.
Clair Obscur just took it all
As far as the awards go, it was expected that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 would dominate, but just not to the extent that Death Stranding 2 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 walked away empty-handed. Kojima’s sequel easily could have taken at least one award given its strengths, while Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 has been met with near-universal praise since launch.
The Game Awards 2025 delivered on spectacle and surprises, but its final reveal exposed a worrying disconnect between what the show aims to value and what it now prioritizes.
Carlos Hernandez is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Much Gaming, where he writes about video games, reviews, and industry news. A lifelong gamer, he would do anything to experience Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time again and has a love/hate relationship with games that require hunting for new gear to improve your character.
The Game Awards 2025 is now in the books, and this year’s ceremony delivered a clear sweep. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 walked away with nine major awards, including Game of the Year. I didn’t expect them to run the table like that, leaving other strong contenders like Death Stranding 2, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, and Split/Fiction completely dead in the water.
One surprise for me: Battlefield 6 winning Best Audio Design. Didn’t see that one coming as I can’t agree all too much about that one, considering the other nominees in that category this year.
Still, a win’s a win. Congratulations to all the winners.
The Game Awards Winners
Game of the Year
Recognizing a game that delivers the absolute best experience across all creative and technical fields.
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach (Kojima Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Ghost of Yotei (Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Silent Hill f (NeoBards Entertainment / Konami Digital Entertainment)
Best Performance
Awarded to an individual for voice-over acting, motion and/or performance capture.
Benn Star in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Charlie Cox in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Erika Ishii in Ghost of Yotei
Jennifer English in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 - WINNER
Konatsu Kato in Silent Hill f
Troy Baker in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Innovation in Accessibility
Recognizing software and / or hardware that is pushing the medium forward by adding features, technology and content to help games be played and enjoyed by an even wider audience.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows (Ubisoft)
Atomfall (Rebellion)
DOOM: The Dark Ages (id Software / Bethesda Softworks) - WINNER
EA Sports FC 26 (EA Canada / EA Romania / Electronic Arts)
South of Midnight (Compulsion Games / Xbox Game Studios)
Games for Impact
For a thought-provoking game with a pro-social meaning or message.
Consume Me (Jenny Jiao Hsia / AP Thomson / Hexacutable)
despelote (Julian Cordero / Sebastian Valbuena / Panic)
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage (DON’T NOD Montreal / DON’T NOD)
South of Midnight (Compulsion Games / Xbox Game Studios) - WINNER
Wanderstop (Ivy Road / Annapurna Interactive)
Best Ongoing Game
Awarded to a game for outstanding development of ongoing content that evolves the player experience over time.
Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Helldivers II (Arrowhead Game Studios / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Marvel Rivals (NetEase Games)
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games) - WINNER
Best Community Support
Recognizing a game for outstanding community support, transparency and responsiveness, inclusive of social media activity and game updates / patches.
Baldur’s Gate III (Larian Studios) - WINNER
Final Fantasy XIV (Square Enix)
Fortnite (Epic Games)
Helldivers II (Arrowhead Game Studios / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
No Man’s Sky (Hello Games)
Best Independent Game
For outstanding creative and technical achievement in a game made outside the traditional publisher system.
Elden Ring Nightreign (FromSoftware / Bandai Namco Entertainment)
PEAK (Aggro Crab / Landfall)
Split Fiction (Hazelight / Electronic Arts)
Best Adaptation
Recognizing outstanding creative work that faithfully and authentically adapts a video game to another entertainment medium.
A Minecraft Movie
Devil May Cry
Splinter Cell: Deathwatch
The Last of Us Season 2 - WINNER
Until Dawn
Most Anticipated Game
Recognizing an announced game that has demonstrably illustrated potential to push the gaming medium forward.
007 First Light (IO Interactive)
Grand Theft Auto VI (Rockstar Games) - WINNER
Marvel’s Wolverine (Insomniac Games / Sony Interactive Entertainment)
Resident Evil Requiem (Capcom)
The Witcher IV (CD Projekt RED)
Content Creator of the Year
For a streamer or content creator who has made an important and positive impact on the community.
Caedrel
Kai Cenat
MoistCr1TiKaL - WINNER
Sakura Miko
The Burnt Peanut
Best eSports Game
For the game that has delivered the best overall esports experience to players (inclusive of tournaments, community support and content updates), irrespective of genre or platform.
Counter-Strike 2 (Valve) - WINNER
DOTA 2 (Valve)
League of Legends (Riot Games)
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (Moonton)
VALORANT (Riot Games)
Best eSports Athlete
The eSports athlete judged to be the most outstanding for performance and conduct, irrespective of game.
brawk – Brock Somerhalder (VALORANT)
Chovy – Jeong Ji-hoon (League of Legends) - WINNER
f0rsakeN – Jason Susanto (VALORANT)
Kakeru – Kakeru Watanabe (Street Fighter)
MenaRD – Saul Leonardo (Street Fighter)
Zyw0o – Mathieu Herbaut (Counter-Strike 2)
Best eSports Team
Recognizing a specific eSports team (not the full organization) judged the most outstanding for performance and conduct.
Overall, it was a fun watch compared to the last award as I recall 2024 was a bit too ad-heavy, with most ads only catering to the US audience. This time around, it was a nice mix of reveals and recognition to the games. There’s room for improvement, but it’s definitely showing how valuable the Game Awards brand has become as based on this year’s list of announcements, it feels like December is when E3-like announcements are made now. Is that a good thing? Time will tell.
Carlos Hernandez is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Much Gaming, where he writes about video games, reviews, and industry news. A lifelong gamer, he would do anything to experience Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time again and has a love/hate relationship with games that require hunting for new gear to improve your character.
Evolution, the world’s biggest fighting game tournament, has revealed its full lineup for 2026. EVO Japan 2026 follows on May 1–3 at Tokyo Big Sight, while the main event, EVO 2026, takes place on June 26–28 at the Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall in the US.
The two lineups aren’t identical, so here’s a clear breakdown of what to expect next year.
EVO 2026 Games Lineup
2XKO
BlazBlue: Central Fiction
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
Guilty Gear: Strive
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising
Invincible VS
Rivals of Aether II
Street Fighter 6
Tekken 8
Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes
Vampire Savior: The Legend of Vampire
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage
Four titles are making their EVO debut: 2XKO, Invincible VS, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage, and Vampire Savior: The Legend of Vampire.
EVO Japan 2026 Games Lineup
2XKO
Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves
Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising
Guilty Gear: Strive
Hokuto no Ken
The King of Fighters XV
Melty Blood: Type Lumina
Street Fighter 6
Tekken 8
Under Night In-Birth II Sys:Celes
Vampire Savior: The Legend of Vampire
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage
Five games are appearing at EVO Japan for the first time: Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, Hokuto no Ken, Vampire Savior: The Legend of Vampire, Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage, and 2XKO.
Those looking to compete in either events can go and register starting today through the official website evo.gg.
Carlos Hernandez is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Much Gaming, where he writes about video games, reviews, and industry news. A lifelong gamer, he would do anything to experience Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time again and has a love/hate relationship with games that require hunting for new gear to improve your character.
If you’d enjoyed running around on Ellan Vannin in a peaceful celebration, you’d better get ready for what Dark Age of Camelot has done to the region. That peace has been shattered and players are now faced with an open PvP zone flagging anyone not in your group as an enemy, complete with ruined towers for […]
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We have some unfortunate news to share for any Japanese fans of NCsoft’s MMORPG Blade & Soul: The studio has officially confirmed that both Blade & Soul and its Blade & Soul NEO server are sunsetting in Japan this March. “[W]e have come to the conclusion that it has become difficult to provide a stable […]
The Stream Team has a confession: Larry is absolutely terrible at Peak. It took him exactly one hour of gameplay to realize that he had no idea what he was doing. For the last several months, Split Fiction pressed MJ’s platforming skills to the brink. And now it’s time for MJ’s revenge. Now it’s Larry’s […]
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Oh sure, it’s only been a week since City of Heroes Homecoming’s issue 28, page 3, went live with a big ol’ revamp for Masterminds and the new sonic set for melee toons, but in case that update wasn’t your vibe, you can gear up for the game’s winter events instead. “The snow has started […]
Pokemon Go’s not perfect, and there’s always something to complain about, but the winter Precious Paths season is certainly looking strong in some ways. Yes, there are some very wrong turns ahead, but there’s enough good to light a fire even in this player’s cold heart. Today’s Massively on the Go is here not just to warn […]
Once again, Warframe has begin its annual Tennobaum event, which is still unlike most holiday events. No, really. There are in-game rewards, yes, and it is celebrating this time of the year. But unlike most similar events, this one doesn’t involve your grabbing items in-game and delivering them to gift piles. No, this is about players […]
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One of the things I love about Blades in the Dark is that it has a mechanism for creating background events for your campaign. During Downtime (though I do this after a session), you roll to see how various factions make progress (or not) on their goals. Mechanically, this is a series of Fortune rolls that advance various project clocks for each faction. The result of this is that while the characters are off doing their own things, the factions in the city also progress with their agendas and goals. Mechanisms like this give a campaign a life of its own. So let’s talk about it.
Background Events
Let’s start with a definition: a background event is a narrative element that occurs without the direct intervention of the PCs. It can take many forms, such as actions of individual NPCs, groups, or even natural events. Background events can take place in one-shots and campaigns, and they can take place during stories or between stories.
Background Events have a few effects in the game:
They create a sense of a dynamic background to the game. Having NPCs, groups, and natural events occur gives players the feeling that the campaign world is alive and breathing around them, and not just a static background that freezes when the characters change locations.
They create potential stories. The players may take an interest in the background events and may want to intervene, giving you and your table a new story to play.
They can create tension and drama. Having a main story and several concurrent background stories will create decision points in the game. Do the characters stay on the main story, or should they take a session and help the baker who is about to lose their bakery because of the lost shipment of flour? Which decision will they make, and what consequence will come of it?
Several games have this built into their mechanics. Dungeon World uses Signs & Portents, and the Forged in the Dark games have the Faction Downtime actions. Even if a game does not have specific mechanics for it, they can be done narratively in any game, by just making up some news and events and conveying them to the players.
A Framework for Good Background Events
Here is a model for a mechanized version of background events, if your game does not have a mechanism for this. This draws heavily upon both Dungeon World and Forged in the Dark:
First, come up with some groups or individuals that are up to something.
Second, for each group or individual, give them a goal and some arbitrary steps they would take to accomplish that goal. Here we are building a clock.
Third, decide what interval you want to update these clocks. A good starting interval is between stories.
Fourth, at the specified interval, decide if the clock advances and how much. You can just decide this for yourself, or you can assign some dice to determine this effect. Perhaps roll a d6 and advance the clock that many ticks.
Fifth, convey the outcomes of some or all of the clocks to the characters during the session.
Conveying The Information
Like character backgrounds that are written down and not discussed at the table, creating background events and keeping them to yourself does nothing to enhance your game.
Regardless of whether you arbitrarily create background events or use a mechanism for creating them, the most important part is that you convey their progress to the characters. Like character backgrounds that are written down and not discussed at the table, creating background events and keeping them to yourself does nothing to enhance your game. The events you create have to reach the characters to create the effects above.
For your game, you need to think of how news and information are conveyed. If you are playing a modern supers game, information and news are nearly instantaneous. It will be livestreamed or posted to social media before traditional news can report it. If you are playing a SciFi game where news has to travel great distances but is limited to the speed of light, then perhaps couriers jump from system to system in their FTL ships with news. News is dependent on the arrival of couriers. This will change how the news reaches the players; there could be delays or bundles of news.
Give thought to how news travels in your setting and what constraints or features will be created in your game. The most important consideration is timing. If you want the characters to potentially act on some background events, then the information needs to arrive at them with time to react; otherwise, they will receive the news of the event and write it off because it will take too long to intervene.
How To Present The Information
Once you work out how the information of the background events reaches the characters, take a moment and think of how narratively you can present the information. The least interesting way to do this is a GM to player data dump, where the GM just tells the players several events going on, “From around town you hear the following… blah, blah, blah”.
The more interesting approach is to present the information in the context of how the characters would receive it. This can be solely narrative (the GM just saying things) or it could be a post or handout (for the more creative types). In a modern game, you might put the information in the form of social media posts. In a Roaring 20s game, this could be done as a radio broadcast or a newspaper front page. If you have an NPC that could present the events, they could come in and do it in character.
In my Blades in the Dark game, the crew has an information network of newsies who gather rumors and events while selling newspapers throughout the city. The head of the newsies, Red, comes to the crew’s HQ and presents a briefing to the players. For this, I write out the events in Red’s voice, and during the Free Play phase of the game, we do a scene where Red is reporting to the crew.
Did You Hear?
Background events are a great way to make a campaign feel more alive and can foreshadow events or create dramatic decisions for the characters. You can create these arbitrarily or using a mechanical approach. If you do use background events, give thought to how the information reaches your players, and when you do present it, think of a creative way to deliver the news.
Do you use background events in your games? How do you create and track them? What’s the most challenging way information has had to reach your players? What is your favorite method to present the information?
We are now at the tail-end of the year, which means it’s time to look back at the great games that was released in 2025. This year’s The Game Awards just announced their nominations for each of their categories for their December 11show and it went down as I was expecting with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 taking a whopping 12 nominations across 10 categories.
Carlos Hernandez is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Too Much Gaming, where he writes about video games, reviews, and industry news. A lifelong gamer, he would do anything to experience Final Fantasy Tactics for the first time again and has a love/hate relationship with games that require hunting for new gear to improve your character.
