New Xbox Game Pass Confirmed Day One Games Include One of 2026's Biggest Releases

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Not one, but two new Xbox Game Pass day one games have been confirmed. One of these games is releasing in November, while the other is set to be one of the biggest releases of 2026. As day one games, though, the pair will be limited to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscriptions and be unavailable via both the Standard and Core tiers.

The first of these two day-one Xbox Game Pass games, the one coming in November, is Winter Burrow, a cozy-style survival game from developer Pine Creek Games and publisher Noodlecakes. This is releasing on November 12 and will be available via XGP the moment it does. While not a console exclusive -- as it's also coming to Switch -- Winter Burrow is notably skipping PS5, making this an even more noteworthy pick up for Xbox. The other new Xbox Game Pass game is Forza Horizon 6, which was announced today at Tokyo Game Show for release in 2026. The Xbox Game Studios' game is once again being made by Playground Games, who will also be bringing the title to PS5, though not at launch.

In Winter Burrow, you play as a mouse who has to explore, gather resources, craft tools, bake pies, and more in order to survive. What must you survive? Well, the frozen wilderness and all the insects hellbent on killing you. You won't be able to do this by yourself, though, which is why you will also need to make time to befriend the locals. This is set to be the debut release for Pine Creek Games, which makes it difficult to know what to expect from a quality perspective.

Forza Horizon 6 needs little introduction as one of Xbox's best and most popular series. At one point, Forza Horizon was the spin-off of Forza Motorsport; now it's much bigger. This installment is set to take players to Japan, though right now, there is no word of when exactly in 2026 it will do this. Japan is going to be a brand-new setting for the series, and far different from anything it has done before. On one hand, this is driving interest, but on the other hand, it's Playground Games slightly out of its comfort zone, which could cause issues. That said, the UK studio has demonstrated across several installments now that it is one of the best, if not the best, in the racing sim business.

As these two games demonstrate, Microsoft is increasingly focusing on day-one games when it comes to Xbox Game Pass. And it's putting more and more emphasis on this, not only because internal data suggests it's effective, but because it differentiates the subscription service from PlayStation Plus, which has nowhere near as many day one games. To this end, three of the four top-rated games of this year have been day-one Xbox Game Pass games. Meanwhile, October already has nearly 10 day-one games line up for subscribers.

As always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think, or join the conversation over on the ComicBook Forum. Will you be checking out either of these Xbox Game Pass games when they release?