Xbox is going big for its 25th anniversary. The company announced its gamescom 2026 plans on July 28, confirming a return to Cologne with 25 upcoming games spread across 140 gaming stations — and a hands-on slate that includes the first public playable campaign demo of Gears of War: E-Day and the gamescom debut of 4A Games’ METRO 2039.
gamescom 2026 runs August 26–30 at Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany, and Xbox’s booth sits in Hall 7, booth A-0.61. The framing this year is explicitly celebratory: 25 years since the original Xbox, with interactive exhibits that revisit games and hardware moments from every console generation alongside the new lineup.
The heavy hitters on the show floor
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 takes center stage, with attendees stepping into the franchise’s Core 6v6 multiplayer on Xbox Series X. For anyone who played the Early Access Beta, this is the follow-up taste; for everyone else, it’s the first hands-on with the next chapter of Modern Warfare multiplayer.
Gears of War: E-Day may be the bigger deal for longtime Xbox fans. gamescom hosts the first public playable hands-on with the campaign — the brutal origins of the Locust War and the start of the brotherhood between Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago — ahead of the game’s October 6, 2026 release. That’s a seven-week runway from demo to launch, which suggests Microsoft is confident in the build.
Minecraft Dungeons II is playable for the first time anywhere, complete with co-op — Microsoft’s pitch is to “drop your pickaxe and grab a sword (and a friend).” STRANGER THAN HEAVEN also gets its first playable demo, showcasing a combat system that has players independently controlling the left and right sides of protagonist Makoto Daito across three of the five Japanese cities and eras in the full game’s 50-year saga.
Then there’s METRO 2039, making its first hands-on appearance ahead of a February 2027 release. 4A Games is returning players to the post-apocalyptic ruins of Moscow, and the gap between demo and launch here is longer — this is an early look, not a launch preview.
Not everything is hands-on
Fable is present but behind glass: Playground Games will run a live demo theater presentation showing gameplay to the public, highlighting the melee-ranged-magic combat mix, rather than putting controllers in hands. That distinction matters for anyone tempted to read the booth list as “25 playable games” — Fable’s slot is a showcase, and it remains the project Xbox is most careful about exposing.
The rest of the confirmed lineup is deep: Halo: Campaign Evolved — which launched the same day as this announcement — is playable in its modernized remake form, and Forza Horizon 6 brings a new Drift Attack feature plus a preview of upcoming Japan-themed partnership collaborations. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 debuts the first public hands-on with its National Championship Air Races content. Alien: Isolation 2, Alien Deathstorm, The Blood of Dawnwalker, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, Crowsworn, Genigods: Nezha, Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy, STAR WARS Zero Company, Terrible Lizards, Turok: Origins, Bad Magpie, and Valor Mortis round out the station list.
Streams, FanFest, and the accessibility setup
Can’t make it to Cologne? Xbox will broadcast live from the booth starting at 4pm CEST on Wednesday, August 26 and Thursday, August 27, on YouTube and Twitch, with developer interviews, gameplay reveals, and new trailers. The shows will carry American Sign Language interpretation and English audio descriptions, with select content localized into additional languages.
Xbox FanFest returns too — Cologne is the next stop, Wednesday, August 26 from 8pm to 11pm CEST at the booth, with ticket sweepstakes running through Xbox’s official channels.
The booth accessibility list is one of the more thorough at the show: wheelchair access throughout, Xbox Adaptive Controllers on request, demo stations with adjustable-height desks and monitors, a quiet room with sensory items, and ASL, BSL, and DGS interpreters on-site from 12–5pm Thursday through Sunday.
The takeaway: Xbox is treating gamescom as its biggest consumer moment of the year, with three first-time playables (Minecraft Dungeons II, STRANGER THAN HEAVEN, and the E-Day campaign) that would each anchor a smaller show on their own. If you’re within travel distance of Cologne in late August, the queue math — 25 games, 140 stations — is about as favorable as a major booth gets.
