Developer: Jackbox Games (Chicago)
Titles: Trivia Murder Party 3 · The Jackbox Party Pack 12
Dates: September 17 & October 15, 2026
TMP3 Setting: Camp Mass Acres
Pack 12 Contents: Five all-new games
Controller: Your phone
🎉 Jackbox Games have dated two releases for this autumn. Trivia Murder Party 3 — the first standalone spin-off in the studio’s history — arrives September 17, followed by The Jackbox Party Pack 12 with five brand-new games on October 15.
Sept 17
Trivia Murder Party 3
PC via Steam and Epic, in Early Access. Full 1.0 release follows next year on PC, Xbox, Switch 2 and PS5.
Oct 15
The Jackbox Party Pack 12
Five completely new games, launching simultaneously across nine platforms.
Two dates, two very different announcements. One is a new entry in a series that has been reliably ruining friendships since 2014. The other is a genuine change in how Jackbox Games do business.
Trivia Murder Party 3 — September 17
⭐ The First Standalone Spin-Off Jackbox Have Ever Done
This is the part worth paying attention to. For over a decade, Jackbox’s model has been the bundle — five games, one Party Pack, one purchase.
Trivia Murder Party 3 breaks that. It’s the first-ever standalone sequel to a Party Pack favourite, released on its own terms as its own product. That’s a real strategic shift, and a bet that individual Jackbox brands have become strong enough to carry a release without four other games attached.
It’s also launching into Early Access, which is unusual for a party game. The format normally lives or dies on polish and content volume at launch — going in early suggests Jackbox want to iterate on the minigames with real player data before locking things down for the 1.0 release next year.
That full release is scheduled for 2027 across PC, Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2 and PlayStation 5.
🌐 Online Multiplayer — and Solo Play — for the First Time
The second significant change, and arguably the more important one for actually playing the thing. Trivia Murder Party 3 adds online multiplayer for the first time in the series, which also enables solo play.
Jackbox’s entire identity has been built on everyone being in the same room. That’s the charm — and it’s also the format’s single biggest limitation, because it means the games sit unplayed whenever you can’t gather people. Supporting online and solo doesn’t replace the couch experience; it means the game still exists on the nights nobody’s around.
The setting this time is Camp Mass Acres — a summer camp slasher framing that suits the series’ whole “answer trivia or die horribly” premise rather well. Local play remains, alongside a run of new mini-games and unlockable accessories, should you wish to be wearing a bucket hat at the moment of your demise.
The Jackbox Party Pack 12 — October 15
📊 826 Million Games Started Since December 2022
That’s Jackbox’s own figure for the series, and it’s worth sitting with. Not players, not copies — individual games started, in under four years.
Party Pack 12 arrives with five completely original, never-before-seen games, continuing a run that’s been going since 2014 and is played by tens of millions of people annually.
Jackbox haven’t named the five games yet, but the announcement hints at what they involve:
💌 Greeting Cards
Creating your own cards — presumably with the usual Jackbox approach to sincerity.
📣 Urgent Trivia
Yelling trivia at your friends “with a shocking amount of urgency.”
🍍 Debate Club
Arguing the great questions of our time. Jackbox’s own example: whether pineapple belongs on pizza.
🧠 In Sync?
Testing how well you actually know the people you turned up with.
That’s four of five accounted for, which leaves one unannounced.
Nine Platforms on Day One
🖥️ Steam
⚫ Epic
🎮 PS4 / PS5
🟩 Xbox One / Series
🔴 Switch 1 & 2
📺 Apple TV
📱 iPad
🍎 Mac App Store
Party Pack 12 launches everywhere at once, including last-generation consoles and the Apple ecosystem. For a game whose value proposition is “whatever’s already plugged into the television in this room,” that breadth isn’t a flex — it’s the product working as intended.
📱 One Copy, Everyone Plays
Both titles keep Jackbox’s defining trick: everybody plays using their own smartphone as a controller. No extra pads, no additional purchases, no minimum hardware per person.
It remains the most cost-effective way to get a room full of people into the same game, and it’s why these turn up at parties where nobody would otherwise describe themselves as a gamer.
Who’s Making It
🎪 Jackbox Games
A Chicago-based developer and publisher, best known for The Jackbox Party Pack series and played by tens of millions worldwide each year. Alongside their own party games, Jackbox now also publish independent titles that share their focus on creativity, humour and accessible design.
Trivia Murder Party 3 arrives September 17, with The Jackbox Party Pack 12 following on October 15.
Hi there! I’m Marie, also known as CtrlQueen. I’m passionate about keeping up with the latest in gaming news and sharing my insights. RPGs steal my heart with their rich narratives and immersive worlds, but I also love unwinding with fun, casual games. Whether you’re here for deep dives into game mechanics or just to chat about your favorite casual game, you’ve found the right place! Let’s game and explore together.
