Xbox's ID@Xbox Showcase Reveals a Four-Player Digging Sequel and Magenta Down

Xbox closed out Tuesday with its biggest indie showcase in weeks, teaming up with IGN to run through roughly two dozen self-published titles in just under an hour. The ID@Xbox x IGN Showcase, which aired October 20, mixed a surprise same-day launch with new dates for several previously announced games and two outright reveals: a four-player follow-up to one of Steam's biggest sleeper hits, and a survival adventure set on a hostile alien world.

Four shovels are better than one

The bigger of the two reveals was A Game About Digging a Hole Together, a direct sequel to the minimalist excavation game that quietly became a Steam phenomenon. Developer Mi'pu'mi Games keeps the core loop intact: dig, sell what turns up, upgrade the gear, dig deeper. What's new is the "together" part. The sequel adds online co-op for up to four players with full crossplay, a larger map, a beach setting with new terrain to tunnel through, and expanded tool upgrade paths. A single-player option stays in for anyone who, as the game's own Steam page puts it, doesn't have anyone to dig with.

Xbox listed the game for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC and Game Pass with a December 4 release date, while the Steam listing itself still shows the PC release as to-be-announced, suggesting console and storefront dates may land separately. It's published by rokaplay, with Shochiku also credited on the game's international listings.

Stranded on a hostile exoplanet

The showcase's other headline reveal came from 2 Ton Studios: Magenta Down, described by the studio as an atmospheric journey about moving forward and enduring the consequences. The setup drops players and their crew across a remote, irradiated exoplanet after a crash, with limited supplies and no easy way home. Flashing lights in the distance mark supply pods or a newly rebooted antenna beacon, usually pointing toward the next outpost worth reaching.

Storms raise radiation exposure and cut visibility, tracked through an onboard Geiger counter, and the planet's wildlife turns fast and dangerous once provoked; combat leans on holding ground and timing hits rather than precision aiming. Players can scavenge crash sites and abandoned mining facilities for intel before committing scarce resources to a route. Xbox's own write-up lists the game for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC in early 2027.

A packed lineup beyond the two headliners

Around those reveals, the show moved through a long list of smaller announcements. Arctic Eggs, from the CRITICAL REFLEX label, launched the same day as a surprise. Scramble Knights Online is dated for October 26, and Croak is set for March 2027 with day-one Game Pass support and Xbox Play Anywhere. Love is a Roguelite got a world-premiere trailer promising sixteen romance pairings woven into a procedurally generated story, while Mr. Magpie's Harmless Card Game revealed that voice actor Matt Mercer will play its title character when it arrives in early 2027.

• Rustown, set five years after a fictional pandemic, is due June 30, 2027.
• Graytail and Chronoscript: The Endless End landed broad 2027 windows without firm dates.
• Drill Keeper and Waveling Island round out the early-2027 and summer-2027 slates respectively.

Why the program still matters to Xbox

ID@Xbox has been Microsoft's self-publishing pipeline for independent developers since it launched at Gamescom in 2013, letting qualifying studios submit a concept, sign Xbox's publishing agreements and get development kits without upfront fees. Pairing the program with an IGN-hosted broadcast gives smaller teams a slot in front of an audience they'd otherwise have to fight for at a bigger platform event, and Tuesday's mix of a surprise launch, two fresh reveals and a dozen-plus release windows suggests Xbox is leaning on that formula again heading into next year's console and PC lineup.

Xbox's own listings cover Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC for both headliners, with Magenta Down's early 2027 window still broad enough that a firmer release date, and any additional platforms, will likely surface closer to launch.