If January felt quiet on the surface, look closer: Xbox has quietly stacked the start of 2026 with weird, charming, and occasionally terrifying indies alongside a brisk stream of smaller releases. Between the platform’s Indie Selects spotlight and the regular “Next Week on Xbox” cadence, there’s enough variety to fill a month of late-night sessions — and then some.
A curated month for indies
Xbox’s Indie Selects hub is leaning into that variety this month. The January collection packs tactical RPGs, roguelites, metroidvanias, intimate narrative games, political sims and a cozy time-loop mystery. If you like your games to surprise you, this lineup mostly refuses to be predictable.
Standouts in the Indie Selects collection include Demonschool, a stylish tactics game that mashes monster-hunting with campus life; Morsels, an oddball creature-collector roguelite that rewards swapping out your party on the fly; and GigaSword, a retro-flavored Metroidvania whose gimmick — a ludicrously heavy blade — makes both combat and traversal a puzzle. Then there’s Goodnight Universe, a short but potent narrative from the makers of Before Your Eyes that casts you as Isaac, a six-month-old with psychic abilities. Suzerain’s Expanded Edition brings dense, text-first political drama to console audiences, and Rue Valley invites you into a small town trapped in a 47‑minute time loop, where quiet discoveries matter more than loud action.
Xbox is also planning an Indie Selects Anniversary Celebration on January 28, promising discounts, giveaways, and more chances to try these smaller titles. If you’re trying to map your 2026 gaming calendar, it’s a good reminder to keep an eye on the indie corner alongside the big-ticket releases — and you can see the broader release slate if you want a calendar view in our guide to Xbox release dates for 2026.
The weekly trickle: new games arriving next week
Beyond curated collections, the weekly “Next Week on Xbox” roundups show a steady drip of new content. The January 12–16 slate is everything you’d expect from the long tail of the storefront: Bus Driving Simulator: EVO and SimRail for the simulator crowd; Loan Shark, a moody nautical horror about deals that come with terrible strings; DreadOut Remastered for fans of Southeast Asian supernatural horror; Tavern Manager Simulator and Disco Simulator for players who love management sims; and a raft of smaller platformers, puzzlers, and narrative pieces.
This spread matters because smaller games often find their audience through proximity — a curated hub, a store feature, or a well-timed discount — rather than marketing blitzes. A simulator fan might spot SimRail and then notice a cozy narrative like Apartment No 129 or the jigsaw-like Cats Around Us tucked nearby. That kind of cross-pollination is what indie curation is built to encourage.
What the press and shops are noticing
Media roundups have been doing the same matchmaking. Several outlets flagged ID@Xbox releases worth your time: everything from meme-sized gems like A Game About Digging a Hole™ to moody walking simulators such as Fort Solis and the punishing lunar-horror ROUTINE. There’s also room for the silly and surreal — Thank Goodness You’re Here! is a hand-drawn comedy slapformer set in a gloriously odd English town — and softer fare like Wylde Flowers, a witchy life sim that’s comfort food for fans of the genre.
Why does that matter? It shows the breadth of the ID@Xbox catalog: you can go from a nerve‑rending sci‑fi mystery to a pastel farming sim without leaving the same storefront. For players on tight budgets or short schedules, these smaller, often cheaper games can be more satisfying than one big AAA purchase.
Should you buy or wait for Game Pass?
Not every indie here is on Game Pass, but some are — and Microsoft’s tendency to land select titles on Game Pass, sometimes even day one, does change the calculus. If you’re a subscriber, it’s worth checking whether a game you’re eyeing is included before you buy. Big launches (and surprise Game Pass additions) have happened before — for example, large multiplatform launches have joined Game Pass day-one in past waves, which changed how players discovered those titles during last November’s slate.
If you prefer to own copies or want cross-play on PC and console, look for Xbox Play Anywhere support notes in the store pages — several recent indies include that perk.
A quick note on variety
What’s delightful about this moment is not just the number of releases, but how different they are. One hour you’re solving choreography-like turn-based fights at a demon university; the next you’re piloting a bus through Los Angeles traffic or digging a backyard hole that mutates into something absurdly profitable. That tonal whiplash can be exhausting — or exactly the point. For players willing to wander the storefront, January’s early weeks offer a buffet of curious little worlds.
If you want an organized way to dip into them, the Indie Selects hub is a good starting point; otherwise, keep an eye on the weekly store roundups and the Indie Selects Anniversary later in the month. Either way, the start of 2026 looks like a fine time to let small games surprise you.