Xbox Showcase features Starfield, Fable, Star Wars, Cyberpunk and much more

A few weeks ago, Sony showed off what they had in store for the PS5 — and today, Microsoft took their turn at the plate with the Xbox Games Showcase.

The show featured 27 games, including 21 that will be available via Xbox Game Pass. Among the highlights:

• South of Midnight, a gorgeous-looking Southern Gothic magic game from Compulsion Studios. Not much in the way of gameplay was shown, and Compulsion have kind of become known for amazing trailers for mediocre games, but hopefully this time around the end product will live up to its promise.
• Star Wars: Outlaws, an open-world Star Wars game being developed by Ubisoft. The reveal trailer was heavy on the CGI, but some of the gameplay will be shown off at tomorrow’s Ubisoft Forward showcase.
• a first look at the rebooted version of Fable. There weren’t many details for this one, but it’s being developed by Playground Games, it’s coming to Xbox Series X and PC, and the trailer starred Richard Ayoade, which instantly made it a little funnier than your typical game trailer.
• Still Wakes The Deep, from developers Chinese Room. Again, the trailer didn’t show much, but from what we did see, it’s a first-person exploration game from the same studio that made Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture — two major games in the so-called “walking simulator” genre, which makes this one worth watching.
• a 45-minute deep dive into all things Starfield. The game arrives in just a few months, so was the game’s chance to show off everything it has to offer — and judging by the reception, it would appear that this might have cast off any doubts that people may have after Redfall’s difficult launch.

There was plenty beyond those announcements, though. We got release dates for Forza Motorsport (October 10th), Cities: Skylines II (October 24th), and Phantom Liberty, a new expansion for Cyberpunk 2077 arriving September 26th. Microsoft is also launching a 1 TB Xbox Series S on September 1st, so if you want more built-in space right out of the box, you’ll have that in just a few months.