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The Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusives due out in 2016

Gears of War 4! Crackdown 3! Sea of Thieves! More!

Hot on the heels of announcing the delay of Scalebound to 2017, Microsoft has committed to a 2016 release for a raft of Xbox One and Windows 10 exclusive games.

In a post on Xbox Wire, Xbox marketing chief Mike Nichols announced a number of meaningless statistics about player engagement and time spent doing this and that on Xbox and Windows 10 devices. But the good stuff is in a list of already-announced games due out on Xbox this year, which comes complete with release dates and windows.

Here it is:

  • Gears of War 4 (Xbox One) - Multiplayer Beta in spring 2016/Launch in autumn 2016
  • Quantum Break (Xbox One) - 5th April 2016
  • Halo Wars 2 (Xbox One & Windows 10) - autumn 2016
  • Crackdown 3 (Xbox One) - Multiplayer in summer 2016
  • Fable Legends Open Beta (Xbox One & Windows 10) - spring 2016
  • ReCore (Xbox One & Windows 10) - 2016
  • Sea of Thieves (Xbox One & Windows 10) - 2016
  • Gigantic (Xbox One & Windows 10) - 2016
  • Killer Instinct: Season 3 (Xbox One & Windows 10) - March 2016
  • Gears of War: Ultimate Edition (Windows 10) - spring 2016
  • Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition (Xbox One & Windows 10) - spring 2016
  • Cobalt (Xbox One, Xbox 360 & Steam) - 2nd February 2016

It's worth noting Microsoft has rubber-stamped a 2016 release onto Rare's Sea of Thieves; the open beta for Lionhead's Fable Legends is now set for spring; and Keiji Inafune's ReCore, previously announced for Xbox One only, is also coming to PC.

So, how did Xbox One do in 2015? Nichols stopped short of announcing the number of units sold, no doubt because a direct comparison with Sony's sales monster the PlayStation 4 would be unfavourable, but he did say the Xbox One, which went on sale in November 2013, is doing better than Xbox 360 at the same point in its life. Here's the quote:

I'm not sure the Xbox One is the "best-selling" console in Xbox history, though. Surely that's still the Xbox 360. Perhaps Microsoft meant to say it's the "fastest-selling".

Xbox One exclusives Halo 5: Guardians, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Forza Motorsport 6 and Gears of War: Ultimate Edition each sold over 1m copies, Nichols added.

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