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The Biggest Announcements and Most Interesting Showcases from Gamescom8/30/2026
This selection covers ten new announcements and ten upcoming titles that stood out at the event with trailers or playable demos.
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Gamescom 2026 is behind us, and this year brought not only a large number of new trailers and gameplay showcases, but also several surprisingly major announcements. The Witcher returned, Ubisoft revisited one of the biggest strategy classics, and Paradox, HoYoverse, Krafton and Amplitude also unveiled their new projects.
Rather than compiling a complete list of everything shown in Cologne, we selected the ten biggest new announcements, followed by ten upcoming games that impressed us with their most interesting new showcases.
One of Gamescom's biggest surprises was the announcement of a remastered version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. CD Projekt RED is returning to Geralt's adventure after more than ten years and is modernising the original game both technically and in terms of gameplay.
The remaster will feature improved lighting, vegetation and ray tracing, redesigned movement and combat, and a new ability system. It will launch on 29 September for PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and Switch 2, with existing owners of supported versions receiving a free upgrade. It will also provide the technological foundation for the new Songs of the Past expansion.
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Ubisoft has turned to one of the strategy genre's biggest classics and announced a complete remake of Heroes of Might and Magic III. The 1999 game will receive a new 3D treatment, while the developers want to preserve its original rules, maps and gameplay.
Both major expansions will be included, along with a new prologue and epilogue, revised cutscenes, an editor and community maps, as well as online multiplayer for up to eight players. Heroes of Might and Magic III Remake will launch in 2027 for PC and consoles.
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Ubisoft is also moving Rainbow Six into a completely different genre. Rainbow Six Tactics will be a single-player turn-based tactical game in which players take on the role of Six's commander and lead teams of familiar operators.
Mission preparation, selecting a four-person team and its equipment, and then making tactical use of the environment, including its destruction, will be important. Between operations, we will also expand our headquarters. The game is scheduled for 2027.
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HoYoverse, the company behind Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail, unveiled its next major franchise at Gamescom. This time, Nodusfall will be a more realistic fantasy action game built on Unreal Engine 5.
As Weavers, players will face enormous mythological creatures known as Dreadnodi, and the game will place a strong emphasis on co-op. The first footage combines hunting massive monsters with a dark fantasy world. A release date has not yet been announced.
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Krafton is expanding the PUBG universe with another standalone title. DED.NET will be a dark multiplayer FPS that combines classic firefights with a run-based roguelite system and places them in an alternate version of the 1990s.
The game takes place in the Cascadia region and visually blends grunge, occultism and body horror. It is set to support battles of up to 60 players and is in development for PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS5.
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Paradox has combined city building with LEGO bricks. LEGO Skylines is being developed by Iceflake and will offer a more accessible city builder in which players can gradually build an entire sprawling LEGO city, starting with its first buildings.
It will still include transport, infrastructure, services and residents' needs, but everything will have a more open-ended and playful treatment. The game will come to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2.
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After a long time, Paradox Development Studio is leaving historical periods behind and trying out a completely new setting. Afterworld will be a post-apocalyptic grand strategy game set in a devastated North America.
We will start with a small group of survivors that can gradually grow into an empire controlling the entire continent. The game will involve establishing settlements, rediscovering lost technologies, politics, diplomacy and wars between new societies emerging from the ruins of the old world. The game does not yet have a release date and is in development for PC.
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Amplitude Studios is continuing its historical 4X strategy series. Humankind 2 will once again let players lead a civilisation through different eras and combine various cultures, but this time decisions from the past are intended to have a more lasting impact on the further development of society.
The changing climate and the world itself will also play a more significant role, with civilisations gradually having to adapt to them. Humankind 2 will launch in 2027 for PC.
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Worms is heading into space this time while also making a slight change to its traditional concept. Galactic Tactics will combine turn-based worm battles with tactical and roguelike elements, while retaining the series' destructible environments and absurd arsenal.
Players will create their own team and gradually upgrade it during expeditions across the galaxy. Worms: Galactic Tactics is being developed by Absolutely Games under the Team17 label and will launch in 2027 for PC and consoles.
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NCSoft has officially unveiled the project formerly known as Project Bonfire. Like or Die will be a team-based survival FPS for 16 players divided into four teams of four.
Each team will build and defend its own Nexus, which also serves as its base and respawn source. Once it is destroyed, team members will no longer be able to respawn. Blocks can also be used to rebuild the battlefield itself, create defences or open up new paths.
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Gamescom was not only about new announcements, however. Many already announced upcoming games received new trailers or gameplay presentations, or were shown in playable form for the first time. Here are the most interesting ones:
Geralt's return does not end with the remaster. At Gamescom, CD Projekt RED also offered a closer look at the new Songs of the Past expansion, which will launch in 2027 and take Geralt to the entirely new region of Letten.
At Gamescom, we had the opportunity to see an almost hour-long live demo. It showcased a new open world, a story connected to Marigold's family, new characters and monsters, revamped NPCs, a new ability system and changes to combat. Geralt will also receive a chain that can be used during combat, while a mysterious third sword also appears in the story.
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Playground Games brought one of the most extensive presentations of Fable to date to Gamescom. The 18-minute showcase featured an entire quest, movement through Bowerstone, dialogue, choices, interactions with residents and combat itself.
Combat combines melee attacks, shooting and magic, allowing players to switch smoothly between the different styles. We also saw attacks being parried, enemies being disarmed, and properties and shops being purchased. Fable will launch on 23 February 2027 for PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS5.
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Metro 2039 was one of the standout games of Gamescom, and its new trailer showed more footage from the series' reworked sequel. The game returns to the Moscow Metro while also opening up the surface locations more significantly.
The showcase introduced Stranger's weapons, their modifications, combat against humans and mutants, and several tools needed for survival. At Gamescom, the developers also explained in greater detail how they rebuilt the game from the ground up following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Metro 2039 will launch in February 2027 for PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS5.
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The Coalition revisited Gears of War: E-Day with a new story trailer, while a playable section of the campaign was also available at Gamescom. The prequel will take us back to Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago during the first massive Locust attack.
The developers want to combine the denser atmosphere of the original Gears of War with a more modern presentation and more detailed destruction. Gears of War: E-Day will launch on 6 October for PC and Xbox Series X|S.
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Square Enix also brought the concluding instalment of its Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy to Gamescom. The new trailer, The Planet's Crisis, showed more areas of the world, the return of familiar characters and massive Weapons awakening to defend the planet.
We saw the Highwind, more battles, and Ruby, Emerald and Ultimate Weapon. Final Fantasy VII Revelation is gradually assembling the final chapter of its significantly expanded story. The game will launch in spring 2027 for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Switch 2.
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Remedy showed more of Control Resonant, this time in the Altered State trailer. The sequel moves beyond the Federal Bureau of Control building and will have Dylan Faden fighting in a Manhattan warped by reality.
The gameplay is significantly faster and more action-focused, with Dylan combining supernatural abilities with close-quarters combat. Control Resonant will launch on 24 September for PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS5.
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At Gamescom, Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio showed an extended presentation of its unconventional Stranger Than Heaven. The upcoming action game takes place across several historical periods in Japan, with the individual parts of the story separated by entire decades.
The Gamescom demo focused primarily on combat, exploration and the atmosphere of old Japan. The gameplay retains the signature style of the Like a Dragon developers, but the overall presentation is more serious and historical. Stranger Than Heaven will launch on 15 January 2027 for PC, Xbox Series X|S and PS5.
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China's Eclipse Glow Games continues to showcase its ambitious action game Tides of Annihilation. The new Gamescom footage offered a closer look at the story and more major battles in a destroyed London connected to Arthurian mythology.
The protagonist, Gwendolyn, can summon legendary knights to fight alongside her, and the game combines fast-paced action with monumental bosses. Tides of Annihilation was also one of the most visually striking titles presented at Gamescom.
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Although Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons has been known since last year, it received its first extensive gameplay presentation at Gamescom. Invoke Studios is developing a single-player open-world action adventure that will focus on real-time combat rather than a traditional D&D RPG.
The protagonist will be Kaatri, who enters into a pact with the well-known sorceress Tasha. A major draw is intended to be the systemic magic, which will allow players to alter the environment with spells, combine different effects and deal with situations in multiple ways. The game will launch in 2027.
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Gamescom also brought the first proper look at the gameplay of the strategy game Game of Thrones: War for Westeros. The developers are building on a classic RTS foundation in which we construct a base, gather resources, recruit armies and then send them into major battles.
Heroes and individual factions with different units and abilities will be an important part of the game. It also will not strictly follow the series' story and will allow players to rewrite familiar events, meaning, for example, that the Night King does not have to meet the same fate as in the television adaptation.
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Gamescom 2026 thus brought a combination of major returns, sequels and completely new franchises. The two Witcher projects and the return of Heroes of Might and Magic III attracted the most attention, but there were significantly more interesting games on show. It is already clear that 2027 is beginning to fill up with some major titles.
