Xbox’s indie-focused showcase is back this week. The ID@Xbox April 2026 Showcase has been locked in for Thursday, April 23, with IGN once again hosting the livestream alongside Microsoft. The event will spotlight a fresh batch of indie titles heading to Xbox and PC, with a handful of games already confirmed and plenty more being kept under wraps until showtime.

It is the latest in a string of Xbox events the company has been lining up, sitting between the recently announced Xbox Games Showcase 2026 in June and the dedicated Gears of War: E-Day Direct that’s expected to follow. For indie fans, though, this Thursday is the one to circle.

When Is the ID@Xbox April 2026 Showcase

The showcase kicks off on Thursday, April 23, 2026 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 5pm GMT. For local audiences, that lands at 5am NZST on Friday, April 24, which is admittedly a rough one for anyone hoping to watch live in New Zealand. A daytime catch-up via VOD is the more realistic option for most Kiwi viewers.

Runtime hasn’t been officially confirmed, but ID@Xbox showcases have historically run somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour, so expect a tight, trailer-heavy presentation rather than a sprawling Direct-style event.

How to Watch the ID@Xbox Showcase

The stream will be available across a wide range of platforms, with IGN leading the broadcast as the official partner. You can tune in via:

• IGN.com
• IGN’s YouTube channel
• IGN’s Twitch channel
• IGN’s Facebook page
• IGN on X (formerly Twitter)
• IGN mobile apps
• Eurogamer
• VG247
• GamesIndustry.biz
• Rock Paper Shotgun

Microsoft’s own Xbox channels are also expected to carry the broadcast, as they have for previous ID@Xbox events.

Confirmed Games at the ID@Xbox Showcase

Four titles have been officially confirmed for the April 23 lineup so far. The rest of the slate is being held back as a surprise reveal during the show itself, which is fairly standard for ID@Xbox presentations.

Mistfall Hunter

An extraction-focused multiplayer title that has been building quiet momentum on the PC indie scene. Its inclusion suggests a console announcement or playable build update is on the cards.

There Are No Ghosts at the Grand

A narrative-leaning indie with a distinctive title that has been generating curiosity since its first reveal. Expect a deeper look at gameplay or a release window during the showcase.

Aphelion

Aphelion has already been confirmed as a Day One arrival on Xbox Game Pass as part of the April 2026 Wave 2 lineup, so a fresh trailer here would line up neatly with the launch push.

Solo Leveling Arise Overdrive

A console-flavoured spin on the wildly popular Solo Leveling: Arise mobile and PC action RPG. This one carries the most mainstream pull of the confirmed lineup, given the franchise’s anime crossover audience.

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What Else Could Be Featured

Beyond the four confirmed titles, ID@Xbox has a track record of using these showcases to surface games well outside the usual indie spotlight. The October 2025 event leaned on a mix of breakout hits and lower-profile reveals, with MOUSE: P.I. For Hire, Invincible VS, Vampire Survivors, TCG Pocket Simulator, and Sledding Game all featured. Several of those have since worked their way onto Game Pass.

That pattern is worth keeping in mind on Thursday. The unannounced portion of the lineup is usually where the more interesting reveals land, whether that’s a surprise shadow drop, a Game Pass announcement, or a first look at something genuinely new.

Where the Showcase Fits in Xbox’s 2026 Plans

This event sits at the lighter end of Xbox’s 2026 calendar, sandwiched between bigger beats. The Xbox Games Showcase 2026 is locked in for June and is expected to carry the major first-party reveals, while the Gears of War: E-Day Direct will follow with a focused look at one of the platform’s tentpole releases.

The ID@Xbox showcase is a deliberately smaller affair, but it’s also where Microsoft has historically used Game Pass leverage to sign Day One indie deals and surface games that might otherwise get lost in the noise. With Aphelion already confirmed for the Game Pass April Wave 2 drop, expect at least one or two more Day One announcements to land during the show.

The livestream goes live on Thursday, April 23 at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 5pm GMT, which is 5am NZST on Friday, April 24 for New Zealand viewers.

The post ID@Xbox April 2026 Showcase Date, Time, How to Watch, and Confirmed Games appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Xbox has pulled back the curtain on the second half of April’s Game Pass drop, and it’s a mixed bag of cosy indies, a Vampire Survivors spin-off, a Don’t Nod sci-fi adventure, and a classic Final Fantasy landing on the service for the first time. Ten games are rolling in between 21 April and 5 May 2026, and another nine are heading out the door on 30 April.

Wave 2 isn’t quite the marquee lineup that kicked off the month with Hades 2 and Football Manager 26, but there are four Day One titles in here and a few genuinely interesting picks buried in the list. Here’s everything joining and leaving Xbox Game Pass for the rest of April 2026.

Every Game Coming To Xbox Game Pass In Late April 2026

The full wave spans Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Premium, with a handful of titles available Day One. Two games, Little Rocket Lab and Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato, are already on the service but are now expanding down to the Premium tier.

The Day One Highlights Worth Paying Attention To

Four of this wave’s titles arrive on Game Pass the same day they launch, and they cover a pretty wide stretch of genres. If you’re trying to figure out where to spend your time first, these are the ones doing the heaviest lifting.

Vampire Crawlers: The Turbo Wildcard From Vampire Survivors

Vampire Crawlers is the big draw of the wave. Poncle’s follow-up to the 2022 roguelike phenomenon ditches the bullet-heaven format and turns the same chaotic, build-obsessed energy into a turn-based, deck-driven first-person dungeon crawler. You still build broken combos and explore familiar dungeons, but now it’s served up one turn at a time, either slowly and tactically or as fast as your fingers can mash buttons.

Kiln

Kiln is the one almost nobody saw coming. It’s a pottery game where you sculpt ceramics and then throw those exact creations into online arena battles as your fighter. The studio is pitching it as a celebration of creativity and destruction in equal measure, and it’s the kind of weird, hook-first indie that Game Pass tends to surface well.

Aphelion

Don’t Nod, the studio behind Jusant and Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, is back with a third-person sci-fi adventure built in collaboration with the European Space Agency. You play as astronaut Ariane after a crash landing on a frozen planet, controlling both her and her injured partner Thomas as they push through shifting realities and grounded real-world science. It’s easily the most prestige-leaning entry in the wave.

Heroes Of Might & Magic: Olden Era

This one lands in Game Preview on PC only, and it’s the official prequel to the turn-based strategy series that basically invented its own subgenre. Expect grand armies, devastating spells, and both solo and multiplayer campaigns. A must-look for HOMM veterans, even in its preview state.

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Final Fantasy V Finally Joins Game Pass On 5 May

The one non-Day One headliner is Final Fantasy V, landing on 5 May via the Pixel Remaster version. It’s the first time the game has been available on Game Pass, and it arrives across Ultimate, Premium, and PC Game Pass at once. FFV has long been the cult-favourite entry of the classic run, mostly thanks to its Job system, which a lot of fans still point to as the best iteration Square Enix ever put together.

The Rest Of The Wave: Cosy Builders, FPS Throwbacks, And Multiplayer Chaos

The non-Day One additions lean heavily into comfort food and variety.

Little Rocket Lab is a cosy machine-building RPG where you play an aspiring engineer helping your family finish a rocket.

Sopa: Tale of the Stolen Potato is a narrative adventure set across a magical-realist South America.

TerraTech Legion takes the block-based vehicle builder formula and drops it into a bullet-heaven roguelite.

Sledding Game is a proximity-chat snow sports hangout with yetis, ragdolls, and custom animal avatars.

Trepang2 is probably the wildcard for shooter fans. It’s a gory, fast, genuinely hardcore FPS that flew under a lot of radars on release, and getting it in front of Game Pass’s audience should give it a proper second wind.

Every Game Leaving Xbox Game Pass On 30 April

Nine games are cycling out at the end of the month, so if you’ve been putting any of these off, now’s the time. Xbox is offering up to 20% off if you want to keep any of them in your library permanently.

• Citizen Sleeper (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Creatures of Ava (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Endless Legend 2 (PC)
• Goat Simulator (Cloud, Console)
• Goat Simulator Remastered (Cloud, Console, PC)
• Hunt Showdown 1896 (Cloud, Console, PC)
• NHL 24 via EA Play (Cloud, Console)
• Revenge of the Savage Planet (Cloud, Console, PC)

Citizen Sleeper is the standout departure for anyone who hasn’t played it yet. It’s one of the most acclaimed narrative RPGs of the last few years and genuinely worth clearing a weekend for before it vanishes.

What Wave 2 Says About Game Pass Right Now

Wave 1 carried the month on name recognition. Wave 2 is doing something different, stacking indies, one cult-classic JRPG, and a couple of strategic Day One bets, and letting the catalogue breadth speak for itself. With the rumoured first-party cloud-gaming tier and ongoing conversation around pricing, how Game Pass handles smaller, weirder releases like Kiln and Vampire Crawlers is arguably more revealing than which AAA names it can grab on launch day.

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