Xbox’s Developer_Direct Offers A Look At Fable And Forza Horizon 6

January has become known as home of one of Xbox’s events in the form of the Xbox Developer_Direct. This year, the publisher came through with news on four new games, including Playground Games’ Forza Horizon 6 and Fable, Game Freak’s Beast of Reincarnation, and a surprise reveal from developer Double Fine.

They led off with Playground Games’ Forza Horizon 6, which takes the popular racing sim to Japan for the first time.  The game’s story mode starts players off as a tourist, aiming to attend Japan’s Horizon Festival.

Forza Horizon 6 adds a new twist on their usual progression system with The Collection Journal, which allows players to progress as they find points of interest, and take photos of historical landmarks. As they progress, they’ll also raise their rank in the Horizon Festival.

While the game has the usual player houses that can be unlocked as they play, Horizon 6 also adds a new player customization spot in The Estate. The Estate is an abandoned part of land in rural Japan that belongs to one of the in-game allies, Mei. Players can customize The Estate to add special tracks or create a mountain hideaway by using in-game currency.

Lastly, Horizon 6 introduces Car Meets, special open-world locations that are meant to be social areas to meet other gamers. At Car Meets, it’ll be possible to find custom paint jobs and even purchasing cars other players have. With around 550 cars available at launch, there will be plenty for players to choose from.

Forza Horizon 6 launches on May 19th for Xbox Series, Steam, and Xbox on PC, and will launch on PlayStation 5 later in the year.

Next on the showcase was Game Freak’s Beast of Reincarnation, a new game that’s a massive departure from what the Pokémon developers are known for.  Taking place 2,000 years in the future, Beast of Reincarnation is described as a “one person, one dog” RPG in which players follow the story of Emma and Koo.

Emma is a young woman with the power to manipulate plants thanks to her being affected by “blight”, while Koo is a “malefact” that’s believed will bring danger to the world. Together, Emma and Koo will travel across the world to defeat the “Beast of Reincarnation”, all while trying to hunt other malefacts and absorbing their blight.

With a mix of Emma’s action combat and Koo’s command-based special attacks, Beast of Reincarnation looks like one of the more creative RPGs we’ve seen in a while.

Beast of Reincarnation is scheduled to launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Steam, and the Microsoft Store in Summer 2026.

For the last several years, the Developer_Direct has contained a surprise game. This year’s no exception, with the announcement of Double Fine’s next game, Kiln. Described as a “pottery power fantasy”, Kiln allows players to create detailed pottery with their friends. After it’s made, players can take their pottery into battle against their friends and try to destroy each other’s work, until one player is able to douse the other’s kiln.

With multiple modes, including a 4v4 battle, Kiln looks like a blast for people who like PvP. It launches on PlayStation 5, Steam, the Microsoft Store, and Xbox Series in Spring 2026, but players can already sign up for the game’s beta now.

Playground Games’ Fable was the last of the reveals, and it didn’t disappoint. Across ten minutes, they provided a look at the game’s open-world, combat, and some of the side activities in the world.

The Fable reboot maintains the franchise’s quirky sense of humor, from some of the game’s spells to how the NPCs are handled. On top of allowing full customization of the main character, it also looks to deliver on some of Fable‘s usual big promises through the game’s Living Population. Every NPC is interactable and will react to everything the player does in the game, from their adventures to how they handle themselves in the city of Albion.

The trailer discusses the usual home-owning that fantasy RPGs like this are known for, but also takes things a step further, showing that the player could in theory, own all of Albion, or have multiple husbands/wives/families if they wanted. For now, it really looks to be an evolution of everything fans fell in love with in The Witcher 3 or Skyrim.

Fable will release for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Xbox Game Pass, Steam, and the Microsoft Store sometime this fall.