Minecraft Dungeons II, the co-op dungeon-crawler sequel from Mojang Studios and Double Eleven, joins the service the same day it launches everywhere else — September 29 — as a Game Pass day-one title priced at $29.99 for those purchasing outright. The Minecraft Dungeons II Xbox reveal confirmed day-one access on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. Two smaller titles — Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault on September 2 and SpeedRunners 2: King of Speed on September 3 — round out the four confirmed additions ahead of a month that will grow as Microsoft publishes its standard Game Pass waves. The Pure Xbox September 2026 lineup covers all four confirmed titles.
September 2026 Game Pass Confirmed Lineup
| Game | Date | Platforms |
|---|---|---|
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Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault |
Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Switch 2, PC |
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Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Switch, PC, Cloud |
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Moonlighter 2 Makes Xbox Debut Alongside Its Version 1.0 Launch
Moonlighter 2: The Endless Vault arrives on Xbox Series X and Series S on September 2, graduating from Early Access and releasing its full version 1.0 on the same day it makes its first appearance on Xbox hardware. The Moonlighter 2 September Game Pass details confirm the game’s simultaneous 1.0 and Xbox debut.
The game’s central premise places a player in a dual role that the original Moonlighter turned into a cult following on PC: venture into vibrant, dangerous dimensions to fight enemies and collect loot, then return to manage a growing shop within a community of castaways and set prices for what you bring back. The sequel deepens both sides of that loop with new weapons, gadgets, and community-driven progression that rewards playing across sessions. The tone sits in a distinctive space — bright, Zelda-adjacent visual design over moment-to-moment tension that punishes carelessness. For Xbox subscribers who missed the PC early access run, September 2 is their first opportunity to try the franchise on console, and the 1.0 launch means the full game arrives without early-access caveats.
SpeedRunners 2 Lands After a July Miss
SpeedRunners 2: King of Speed, from tinyBuild Games, was originally slated for Game Pass in July before missing that window at the final stage. September 3 is now its confirmed date, landing on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Cloud. The SpeedRunners 2 September Game Pass confirmation details the delayed arrival from tinyBuild.
The game keeps the side-scrolling competitive platform-racing structure of the original — the screen scrolls rightward and anyone pushed off the back edge is eliminated — while expanding online lobbies from the original’s four-player cap to eight. Players use grappling hooks to swing across gaps, grab power-ups to slow rivals or boost their own speed, and must read maps accurately enough to maintain position under pressure. Local play is supported alongside online, which makes it a natural fit for groups who want something to jump into without a learning curve. For any subscriber who has been waiting since July, the wait ends in the first week of September.
Dune: Awakening Arrives on Console With Its Most Significant Feature Yet
Funcom’s open-world survival game set in an alternate Dune timeline launches on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on September 22, and it arrives as the most feature-complete version of the game since its PC debut in June 2025. The Dune Awakening console launch details from AllKeyShop confirm the September 22 date and Game Pass access.
The critical addition: as of the September update, the entire game — the open world of Arrakis, the story campaign, and the Deep Desert’s high-stakes endgame — can be played fully in single-player. Funcom’s single-player full experience language on Xbox Wire is unambiguous: “This is not a scaled down version of the game; it’s the full experience, start to finish.” Three preset difficulty levels and full manual customization of survival settings — adjustable resource rates, enemy strength, and experience gain — give solo players meaningful control over the experience, as detailed in the Dune difficulty settings Level Infinite coverage.
The game’s premise places players as an undercover Bene Gesserit operative in a version of the Dune universe where Paul Atreides never existed. Arrakis is locked in a civil war between House Atreides and House Harkonnen while the Fremen have mysteriously vanished. The player must survive the planet’s extreme conditions — water scarcity, sandworm attacks, faction warfare — build bases, gather resources, and navigate the political conflict between the Great Houses to find the Fremen and awaken the Sleeper. The faction conflict eventually draws players into the cities of Arrakeen and Harko Village, where rival players and NPC economies coexist in multiplayer sessions; in single-player, those same environments can be explored without the PvP pressure. The September update also delivers the finale of Book One’s story — a narrative payoff that PC players who have followed the game since its 2025 launch will finally be able to reach. Coverage of the Vortex Dune September update details confirms the Book One finale and single-player implementation.
The console version targets 60 frames per second in Performance Mode by default on Xbox Series X and includes an optimized console UI and controller layout built for the platform, per Dune cross-play platform limitations coverage at Vortex Gaming. Xbox Play Anywhere support means progress carries between the Xbox console version and the Microsoft Store version on PC at no additional cost, and cross-play is supported between those two versions. Cross-play between Steam and Xbox is not available — a limitation Funcom attributed to backend complexity — which may matter to subscribers with an existing PC Steam library who want to play with console friends.
The game is available on day one through Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass only. Xbox Cloud Gaming and the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally are both supported, as confirmed in Dune Awakening Game Pass day one coverage at TheXboxHub. Funcom also confirmed a post-launch free map expansion called The Polar Cap, set at the Arrakis north pole with new ice-biome survival mechanics — an update expected later in 2026 after the console launch. The Polar Cap post-launch expansion confirmed in the Level Infinite console launch writeup.
For subscribers who want to buy the game outright, the Standard Edition is $49.99. The Deluxe Edition ($69.99) includes the Season Pass covering the first four paid DLC releases and the Sardaukar Bator armor. The Ultimate Edition ($89.99) adds cosmetic items including the Caladan Palace Building Set and the official Dune 2021 film stillsuit worn by Paul Atreides, plus a digital artbook and soundtrack. The Dune Awakening pricing edition details are documented in the ResetEra thread sourcing Funcom’s official announcement.
Does Dune: Awakening Fit Game Pass’s Post-Call of Duty Model?
The economics of September’s lineup continue the pattern established in August. Microsoft removed new Call of Duty titles from day-one Game Pass access in April 2026, cutting Ultimate’s price from $29.99 back to $22.99 in the same announcement after Xbox Chief Strategy Officer Matthew Ball acknowledged the service had lost “millions of subscribers over the span of a few months” following a prior price increase. The Matthew Ball subscriber loss statement is documented at This Week in Videogames. The replacement mechanism is third-party publisher deals — Microsoft secures day-one access to retail titles that subscribers on Ultimate can play at no additional cost.
Dune: Awakening is among the most substantial third-party day-one titles the service has secured in 2026. A Standard Edition game retailing at $49.99 is available to Ultimate subscribers from launch day. The single-player mode makes it accessible to a subscriber segment — solo gamers who would not have engaged with the multiplayer-required PC version — that the June 2025 launch could not reach. The Dune single-player Game Pass access announcement on Xbox Wire confirmed the simultaneous rollout to all platforms.
Minecraft Dungeons II Closes September With a Day-One Sequel
Minecraft Dungeons II, co-developed by Mojang Studios and Double Eleven and launches on September 29 across Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, and Steam — and it arrives on Game Pass the same day. The Minecraft Dungeons II official date announcement on minecraft.net confirms the September 29 launch and pre-order details
The Minecraft Dungeons 25 million players milestone is confirmed on Wikipedia: the original title reached that mark before Mojang concluded its development in 2023. The sequel is built by the same core team in collaboration with Double Eleven, expanding on the original’s action-RPG dungeon-crawling formula with a broader class system, multi-layered loot progression, and encounters that scale with party size and skill level.
The story sends players — as heroes chosen from multiple character classes — into the Overworld and an unnamed second realm to stop a new threat called “the Twisted,” a corruption spreading across both worlds and led by a Warden variant with a copper-themed design not seen in the original game. The Twisted Warden Minecraft Dungeons details are covered at Beebom following the Xbox Games Showcase reveal. The emotional register is bright and accessible rather than punishing — block-colored Minecraft aesthetics wrapped around satisfying loot collection, designed for co-op sessions where four players can combine crowd-control abilities, burst damage, and support builds in encounters that accommodate a wide range of skill levels. The Xbox Wire ARPGs hands-on preview noted after the June 2026 Xbox Games Showcase: “ARPGs are for chilling,” adding that the game had “clearly been built from the ground up to allow as wide a range” of players as possible.
Co-op supports up to four players online and in split-screen local play. Xbox Play Anywhere cross-device support means a single purchase covers both Xbox console and PC, per Xbox Wire, and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can play on both with shared progress at no additional cost.
Pre-ordering before September 29 at participating retailers includes two hero skins, the Twisted cape, and the Twisted chicken pet. The Minecraft Dungeons II pre-order bonuses are detailed on Xbox Wire. For subscribers who want to own the game outright, the Standard Edition is priced at $29.99, per the Minecraft Dungeons II standard edition price confirmed at Khelnow.
Which Tier Gets September’s Day-One Games?
Both of September’s marquee launches — Dune: Awakening and Minecraft Dungeons II — land on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass on day one. Subscribers on Essential ($9.99 per month) and Premium ($14.99 per month) will not have access to either title at launch through those tiers alone.
Moonlighter 2 and SpeedRunners 2 do not currently carry confirmed tier restrictions in the available information beyond their Xbox availability; both are smaller titles with different publishing arrangements from the two major day-one releases.
Looking ahead: Gears of War: E-Day is scheduled as a day-one Game Pass title on October 6, 2026, followed by Fable as a day-one Game Pass launch on February 23, 2027. September’s two major day-one additions are third-party deals; E-Day will be the next Xbox-developed first-party title on the service after the studio closures that removed five development teams from Microsoft’s pipeline earlier this year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Dune: Awakening on Game Pass in single-player, or only multiplayer?
As of the September 22, 2026 update, the full game — including the open world, story campaign, and Deep Desert endgame — is available entirely in single-player with no other players required. Three preset difficulty levels and customizable survival settings let solo players adjust enemy strength, resource rates, and experience gain. This is the full game, not a reduced version; Funcom has stated explicitly that single-player mode is “the full experience, start to finish.” It launches simultaneously with the Xbox console version and will be available on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass from day one.
Does Dune: Awakening support cross-play between Xbox and PC?
Cross-play and shared progress are supported between the Xbox console version and the Microsoft Store PC version the Xbox or Microsoft Store versions is not available — Funcom attributed this to backend partner complexity. If you own Dune: Awakening on Steam and want to play with a friend on Xbox, cross-play is not currently an option
Is Minecraft Dungeons II available on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, or is it Xbox-exclusive?
Minecraft Dungeons II is a multi-platform release. It will launch simultaneously on September 29 on Xbox Series X|S, PC (Steam and Microsoft Store), PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, and Nintendo Switch 2. It is not an Xbox exclusive. Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers get day-one access at no additional cost, and Xbox Play Anywhere support means a single subscription or purchase covers both Xbox console and PC. PlayStation and Nintendo players will need to purchase the game separately; it is not on PlayStation Plus or Nintendo Switch Online at launch.
Which Game Pass tier is required for the September day-one titles?
Both Dune: Awakening (September 22) and Minecraft Dungeons II (September 29) are available on day one through Game Pass Ultimate ($22.99 per month) and PC Game Pass ($13.99 per month). Subscribers on the Essential ($9.99 per month) or Premium ($14.99 per month) tiers will not have access to either title on launch day. If you are on a lower tier and want to play either game at launch, upgrading to Ultimate or PC Game Pass for September is the only path to day-one access without purchasing outright.
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