Xbox has named the games it is bringing to Summer Game Fest Play Days 2026, giving attendees a look at nine playable demos from studios across the US, Canada, China, Poland, South Korea and Australia.
The lineup leans heavily into hands-on variety rather than one single tentpole. Grounded 2 is the biggest Xbox-owned name in the group, but the slate also includes creature collecting, first-person soulslike combat, farming horror, stylish action shooting, roguelike survival and a very strange stealth heist game about an arm.
Grounded 2 leads a varied demo slate
Grounded 2 will be represented by Obsidian Entertainment and Eidos Montreal with a 30-minute four-player co-op demo built around a fight against King Dozer, the lizard boss from the game's recent Beat the Heat Spring Update. The teams are also highlighting rideable Buggies, a feature Xbox says came from one of the most requested ideas from the first Grounded.
Aniimo, from Hangzhou-based Pawprint Studio, is being pitched as an open-world creature-catching game where players can explore as a human Pathfinder or transform into creatures by "Twining" with them. Its demo is expected to run about 15 to 30 minutes.
Blumhouse Games and Perfect Garbage are bringing Grave Seasons, a farming sim with a murder-mystery horror hook. Its roughly one-hour demo covers an in-game week, with farming, fishing, foraging, breaking and entering and the possibility of preventing a murder.
Gungrave Gore: Blood Heat is also on the list. South Korea's Iggymob says the 20 to 30-minute demo focuses on more aggressive stylish combat built around parries, executions, combos and the Demolition Shot.
Smaller games get room beside Xbox's bigger names
Valor Mortis may be one of the more immediately recognizable pitches for action fans. One More Level, the Kraków studio behind Ghostrunner, is showing a 30-minute demo of its first-person action soulslike about a resurrected former soldier from Napoleon's army using sword combat, supernatural powers and parkour-heavy level design.
Plot Twist, also based in Kraków, is bringing Erosion. The roguelike follows a parent trying to save a kidnapped daughter, with each death pushing the world forward by a decade. Xbox's description points to an open overworld, sidequests, destructible voxel dungeons, more than 100 weapons and abilities and a neon-West setting that decays over time.
Don’t Fret, from Sacramento's Scary Kid Studios, sounds like one of the strangest games in the lineup. The 40-minute demo stars Fret, a sentient guitar trapped in a twisted music school, with stealth, combat, music puzzles and surreal horror imagery.
The final two demos come from Melbourne. Way to the Woods, by onepixel.dog, offers a 20-minute introduction to a deer and fawn exploring a strange world, using light to power old machines and clear away oil. My Arms Are Longer Now, from Toot Games, gives players the first level of a heist game where they sneak, rob and slap through a train carriage as an extremely long arm.
Summer Game Fest Play Days is a press and creator-focused hands-on event attached to Summer Game Fest, so these demos are not being announced as public downloads. Still, the list gives Xbox fans a useful early read on what the company wants people talking about during the summer showcase window.