If you are planning Cologne week or watching from the couch, Xbox just published the practical map for gamescom 2026. The booth is built around the brand's 25th anniversary, with a big playable slate and two days of live broadcasts from the floor. The full rundown is on Xbox Wire.
Xbox Marketing puts the scale in one line:
Our booth will feature 25 upcoming games and 140 gaming stations, giving fans the opportunity to go hands-on before they launch.
Headline playables called out by name include Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Minecraft Dungeons II, Gears of War: E-Day, METRO 2039, STRANGER THAN HEAVEN, and Alien: Isolation 2, with a longer secondary list behind them.
Hands-on that actually changes the calendar
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is the booth centerpiece: Core 6v6 Multiplayer on Series X, aimed at both Early Access Beta veterans and first-timers.
Gears of War: E-Day is the date that matters for single-player fans. Xbox says gamescom is the first public campaign hands-on, covering Locust War origins and the Marcus/Dom start, ahead of the game's October 6, 2026 release.
Minecraft Dungeons II gets a first public play session. Fable gets something rarer: Playground Games' first live demo theater presentation of public gameplay, focused on mixing melee, ranged, and magic combat. STRANGER THAN HEAVEN debuts a demo with its left/right dual-control combat across three of the five Japanese cities and eras. METRO 2039 is first hands-on ahead of a February 2027 launch. Halo: Campaign Evolved, Forza Horizon 6 (including Drift Attack plus upcoming partnership peeks), and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
