A March 26 Xbox event will focus on indie games like Stalker 2

Microsoft and Twitch are partnering for an ID@Xbox showcase of independent video games on March 26 at 9 a.m. Pacific time (noon Eastern). The broadcast will go live on the Twitch Gaming channel, and it will reveal new trailers and gameplay videos for more than 25 games — although Microsoft’s news blog says that “more than 100 games” are taking part.

And this indie event is going to include some big names like the open-world role-playing adventure Stalker 2 and dinosaur-shooting simulator Second Extinction. These games come from indie teams, but they also come with huge potential to wow players. Microsoft is also promising more details about The Ascent, The Wild at Heart, Voidtrain, Exo One, and more.

Of course, Microsoft will also use this time to beef up Xbox Game Pass even further. The company is on a roll when it comes to its Netflix-of-games service. It recently added EA Games to PC Game Pass in addition to 20 games from its recent acquisition, Bethesda. Adding some indie games on top of that pile will make it even more difficult for gaming fans to ignore the value on Game Pass.

What about the next first-party Xbox event? Well, don’t expect anything like that until summer. Since the March 26 livestream is an ID@Xbox event, Microsoft will not have any first-party announcements. It did, separately, reveal that it will livestream an Age of Empires show on April 10. But that is Microsoft’s last big first-party reveal until the traditional E3 timeframe in June. But as the company is showing here, it can just as easily turn to indie partners to build up excitement for its platforms.