Home What’s Xbox and Opening Night Live showing at Gamescom? Here’s the list.

What’s Xbox and Opening Night Live showing at Gamescom? Here’s the list.

tl;dr

  • Microsoft revealed plans for three livestreams at Gamescom 2024, showcasing various upcoming games from Aug. 21-23.
  • Major titles like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will headline, with updates for Diablo IV, Starfield, and more.
  • New game announcements are expected during Geoff Keighley’s Opening Night Live on Aug. 20, featuring several anticipated titles.

Microsoft on Thursday revealed its full plans for three livestreams from next week’s Gamescom 2024, including all of the games that will be mentioned over three broadcasts from Aug. 21 to Aug 23.

Gamescom’s late summer timing, right before the publishing calendar ramps up its fall-to-holiday push of the year’s biggest releases, means new game announcements coming out of Cologne, Germany are rare. Xbox’s schedule is no different, leaning heavy on announced games, games that have a confirmed release date, or updates to live-service blockbusters.

However, fans will want to circle Friday, Aug. 23 at 9 a.m. EDT, as MachineGames and Bethesda Softworks’ Indiana Jones and the Great Circle — which does not have a release date but is still expected sometime this year — headlines the stream.

All that said, here are the games Xbox will be showing Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday next week:

Wednesday, Aug. 21 – 9 a.m. EDT

Atomfall was announced at Summer Game Fest. Made by Rebellion, the folks behind the cult-hit Sniper Elite series, it’s a post-apocalyptic first-person shooter set in the British countryside. Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl has a Nov. 20, 2023 launch date for Windows PC and Xbox Series X, after repeated delays. Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, a major expansion, launches Oct. 8. Overwatch 2 is here because a) Microsoft owns Blizzard Entertainment and b) season 12 kicks off Aug. 20.

Thursday, Aug. 22 – 9 a.m. EDT

Star Wars Outlaws launches Aug. 30 after more than a year of buildup and anticipation. Its last big reveal was a 10-minute gameplay slice that left many wondering if they were looking at an early build of the game. Fans will be expecting a big recovery. World of Warcraft: The War Within is the venerable MMO’s next expansion, launching the same day. Fallout 76: Milepost Zero will be the 20th major update for Fallout’s live-service entry, which launched back in 2018. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 launches Nov. 19. Project Birdseye is the codename for the next game from Striking Distance, makers of The Callisto Protocol. This could be the only true new-game announcement we see from these broadcasts.

Friday Aug. 23 – 9 a.m. EDT

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle has no launch date (or window) yet, and time is running out if this really is launching in 2024. Assuming it’s coming for the holiday season, it would be an unusually short period between release date announcement and release date for a game of that scope, but Bethesda did announce Fallout 4’s launch date in June 2015, and had it in people’s hands five months later. Avowed, a role-playing game from Microsoft-owned Obsidian Entertainment, has already been confirmed delayed to 2025. Sea of Thieves is in the middle of its 13th season, which began July 25 and runs to Oct. 31; no idea what it’s doing here.

Gamescom Opening Night Live with Geoff Keighley set for Aug. 20

Additionally, some of the games mentioned above will also be shown during Tuesday, Aug. 20’s Gamescom Opening Night Live, hosted by The Game Awards’ Geoff Keighley. It airs at 2 p.m. EDT. via Twitch, YouTube, and the Gamescom website.

Games that Keighley has confirmed (via X) will appear include:

And “Yes, there will be new game announcements,” Keighley promised on Tuesday.

Featured image via Xbox on X

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Owen Good
Gaming Editor (US)

Owen Good is a 15-year veteran of video games writing, also covering pop culture and entertainment subjects for the likes of Kotaku and Polygon. He is a Gaming Editor for ReadWrite working from his home in North Carolina, the United States, joining this publication in April, 2024. Good is a 1995 graduate of North Carolina State University and a 2000 graduate of The Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University, in New York. A second-generation newspaperman, Good's career before covering video games included daily newspaper stints in North Carolina; in upstate New York; in Washington, D.C., with the Associated Press; and…

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