The Jackbox Party Pack 12 contains five brand-new games: We Forgot a Card, MegaPals, Debate and Switch, Idol Factions and Hyperface. Jackbox Games set the pack for October 15, 2026 on PC, Mac, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, Apple TV and iPad, and as always only one person needs to own it while everyone else plays on a phone.
Below is what each game actually asks you to do, the player counts and run times Jackbox lists for each one, and the release details worth checking before you buy.
All Five Games at a Glance
Player counts and lengths come from each game’s page on Jackbox’s site, and the genre labels are Jackbox’s own.
| Game | Jackbox’s label | Players | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| We Forgot a Card | Design, joke-writing | 3 to 8 | 20 minutes |
| MegaPals | Speed, guessing | 3 to 8 | 15 minutes |
| Debate and Switch | Presentation, head-to-head | 2 to 8 | 15 minutes |
| Idol Factions | Teamwork, trivia | 2 to 8 | 15 minutes |
| Hyperface | Head-to-head, photo editing | 3 to 8 | 15 minutes |
One wrinkle: the announcement that accompanied the gameplay trailer called every game “suited for 2-8 players”, but the individual game pages list a three-player minimum for We Forgot a Card, MegaPals and Hyperface. If you only have two people, plan on Debate and Switch and Idol Factions. Every game page also lists an audience capacity of 10,000, a family-friendly setting and moderation settings.
We Forgot a Card
Jackbox built this one around the panic of standing in a pharmacy’s greeting card aisle with minutes to spare. Players vote on a category (a holiday, a congratulations, or something bizarre), pick a card design, write the front, then write the message inside. The front can play it straight or riff on what other players wrote.
Cards then face off head to head, and your player avatar acts as your signature: you “sign” the cards you think deserve the points. In the final round you pair the card with a gift, choosing a plushie and writing the line it says when someone pulls its voice-box string. Jackbox also says the cards come “with the option to purchase them IRL”, so a winning joke can become a real card. At 20 minutes, it is the longest game in the pack.
MegaPals
MegaPals is a word-association game about how closely your group thinks alike. The first round gives a prompt such as “What’s a thing you always put off?” and everyone has 45 seconds to type as many answers as they can. Matching someone else raises your friendship score with them.
In round two, players hand out likes to the unmatched words, and the top-voted word becomes the next prompt, so the group steers its own chain of ideas. The final round asks about the other players (“What’s something that would make this player jump out of their seat?”), rewarding both matches and good guesses. The two players with the most in common are crowned the Kings of Friendship.
Debate and Switch
This is a town hall for nonsense. Players submit goofy opinions, like “All menus need photos of the food on them”, and two of them argue for and against while everyone else physically runs to their side of the hall on screen. After the first round of debate, players can edit a single word in the topic, which is how “We need more spiders!” becomes “We need hotter spiders!” mid-argument.
If you are not at a podium, you can still send comments into word bubbles that the debaters either use as ammo or ignore. Because the whole game is people arguing out loud, it works best when everyone can hear each other, in the same room or on a voice call.
Idol Factions
Idol Factions splits the room into two teams. Each round puts up three unrelated categories, for example “Is it a Beatles song, a Romantic Comedy or a TV Dating Show?”, and words start pouring onto the board. Players stand at category buckets, at spots where they can pass words to teammates, or at portals that fling words over to the other team.
Every correct sort grows your team’s stone avatar. Watch for bombs: each has a countdown, and you need to shove it through a portal before it goes off, which throws the other team into chaos. Rounds get faster as the game goes on. In Jackbox’s PlayStation Blog post introducing the pack, Warren Arnold summed up the design goal for Idol Factions: “We want players to be the right amount of stressed out.”
Hyperface
Jackbox calls Hyperface its first photo-editing party game. You take a selfie with your phone (or pick a stock photo if you would rather not star in it), then warp it with smudge, grow, shrink, draw and makeup tools to answer prompts like “Your face when the bidet water is set to an extreme temperature.”
Edited faces go head to head for votes. In the final round you can rework one of your earlier faces or start a new one from scratch. The stock-photo option is the one to point out to anyone shy, or to streamers who would rather keep faces off camera.
Release Date, Platforms and Price
- Release date: Jackbox’s announcement of all five games gives October 15, 2026. Steam’s US store page lists October 14, so PC players in the US may see it unlock a day early; Jackbox has only published the October 15 date.
- Platforms: PC and Mac (Steam and Epic Games Store), PlayStation 4 and 5, Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, Xbox One and Series X|S, Apple TV, iPad and the Mac App Store. Steam’s page also lists Linux. Android TV and Fire TV are not on Jackbox’s list.
- Xbox: Xbox Wire lists the pack with Smart Delivery and Xbox Play Anywhere.
- Price: Nintendo’s US eShop lists it at $29.99. Other stores had not posted a price on their pages when we checked on October 13.
If you are planning the rest of the month, our October 2026 release rundown covers the other big launches.
How Playing Together Works
Only the host needs the game. Everyone else joins from a phone, tablet or laptop browser at jackbox.tv by entering the room code shown on screen, and that device becomes their controller. Games fill their player slots first; anyone beyond that can join the audience, which each game page caps at 10,000 people.
For remote groups, the host shares the game screen over a video call or stream while players join at jackbox.tv as usual. Steam also lists Remote Play Together support. For couch games that use controllers instead of phones, see our picks for the best Switch 2 co-op games and the best PC co-op games.
Which Game to Start With
- Two players: Debate and Switch or Idol Factions, the only games listed down to two.
- Big groups that like teams: Idol Factions, which turns the room into two loud sides.
- Writers and joke people: We Forgot a Card.
- New friends who barely know each other: MegaPals, since the final round is literally about guessing each other.
- Families: any of the five, with the family-friendly setting each game page lists switched on.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many games are in The Jackbox Party Pack 12?
Five: We Forgot a Card, MegaPals, Debate and Switch, Idol Factions and Hyperface.
When does The Jackbox Party Pack 12 come out?
October 15, 2026, per Jackbox. Steam’s US page lists October 14.
How much does it cost?
Nintendo’s US eShop lists it at $29.99.
Is Trivia Murder Party 3 in Party Pack 12?
No. Trivia Murder Party 3 is a separate standalone game that Jackbox released on Steam on September 17, 2026, for $14.99.
Can you play Jackbox Party Pack 12 with two people?
Yes, in Debate and Switch and Idol Factions. The other three games need at least three players.
Does everyone need their own copy?
No. Only the host owns the game; everyone else joins with a phone or browser.
Is it on Switch 2?
Yes. Jackbox lists Switch 1 and Switch 2, and Nintendo marks the Switch version as supported on Switch 2.