Microsoft has confirmed the first nine games for Xbox Game Pass in October 2026, spearheaded by Gears of War: E-Day. We're listing all officially announced new additions with their release dates and explaining what this means for your subscription.
Which Games Are Coming New to Xbox Game Pass in October 2026?
The list is still growing, but nine titles are already confirmed. These are the new additions confirmed so far for October 2026:
- Gears of War: E-Day (October 6) – A day-one release prequel centered around a young Marcus Fenix, set 14 years before the first Gears of War.
- Echo Weaver (October 8) – A knowledge-based Metroidvania built entirely around a time loop.
- Forever Ago (October 8) – A narrative-heavy adventure from Annapurna Interactive and Third Shift.
- Deep Dish Dungeon (October 13) – A dungeon crawler from publisher Raw Fury focusing on exploration, resource gathering, and cooking, playable solo or with up to three players in co-op.
- Valor Mortis (October 13) – A dark setting revolving around a resurrected soldier from Napoleon's Grande Armée.
- Bluey’s Happy Snaps (October 15) – A family game starring the popular cartoon character, day one on Game Pass.
- Chained Beasts (October 15) – A co-op gladiator roguelike for up to four players, where you enter the arena chained together.
- The Séance of Blake Manor (October 27) – A detective adventure that treats time itself as evidence.
- Terrible Lizards (October 29) – A horror parkour game set in an abandoned dinosaur theme park on Route 66.
Microsoft is likely to expand the list in the coming weeks – we will update this article as soon as more games are officially confirmed.
Which Game Pass Tier Do You Need for the October New Additions?
Important for anyone looking to jump in right away in October: Day-one titles like Gears of War: E-Day will only be available on the more expensive tiers of Xbox Game Pass, specifically Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. According to Microsoft's current pricing structure, those with only the cheaper Premium tier may have to wait up to a year for major new releases. The most affordable Essential tier doesn't receive day-one games at all.
How Has Xbox Game Pass Changed Since the Price Hike in Autumn 2025?
This tier rule is no coincidence; it's a direct consequence of the price increase from October 2025. Back then, Microsoft divided Game Pass into three tiers: Essential (8.99 Euros, +29 percent), Premium (12.99 Euros, unchanged), and Ultimate (26.99 Euros, a hefty +50 percent compared to the previous 17.99 Euros). Simultaneously, it was stipulated that day-one releases would henceforth be exclusively reserved for Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers. This increase led to a veritable wave of cancellations at the time. However, the fact that Xbox is still packing one of its biggest blockbusters, E-Day, as a day-one title into the subscription shows, from our perspective, how central Game Pass remains to Microsoft's console strategy: Just recently, Xbox explained its share of GTA 6 pre-orders by correlating it with its own console market share – Game Pass is intended to provide additional customer loyalty here. Meanwhile, the planned restructuring at Ninja Theory shows how turbulent things remain behind the scenes at Xbox studios.
Sources: GamePro, Pure Xbox, TrueAchievements
Which of the nine titles excites you the most – or are you holding out for further announcements? Let us know in the comments!
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