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What To Expect From Nintendo in 2026

IGN

4 janvier 2026 à 18:00

2025 finally saw the long-awaited arrival of Nintendo’s next console: the Switch 2. But now, it’s time to turn the page to 2026 and talk about what’s in store for Switch 2’s sophomore year. Nintendo already has a pretty fleshed out release calendar for both Switches, a blockbuster movie set to hit theaters, with plenty of surprises surely in store as well. Here’s what to expect from Nintendo in 2026.

Nintendo in 2026: What’s Already On the Books

Before we get into wild speculation, here’s a recap of what we already know is coming to Switch and Switch 2 in 2026. There’s already a lot to look forward to, as Nintendo remains very consistent in pushing something out pretty much every single month.

That pattern begins this month, as we’ll all return to our weed-infested islands and face the wrath of our neglected villagers when Animal Crossing: New Horizons gets a free update on the original Switch and a Nintendo Switch 2 edition on January 15. New Horizons 3.0 is available to players on both Switches, and it comes with a new hotel to customize, a bunch of Nintendo items, and tons of little quality of life updates like upgraded item storage. Meanwhile, if you buy the Switch 2 Edition or the $5 upgrade pack, you can access improved resolution, mouse controls, 12-player multiplayer, and more.

Just a few weeks later we’ll see the first brand new Switch 2 exclusive of the year with Mario Tennis Fever’s launch on February 12. The big hook this time is the Fever Rackets that grant special abilities like freezing the court or duplicating yourself. Fever will also feature 38 playable characters, including Donkey Kong’s refreshed design and – for the first time ever – Baby Waluigi.

If you love collecting ridiculous Nintendo products like I do, you might be looking forward to Virtual Boy joining the Nintendo Switch Online library on February 17. You need one of two headsets to access this forgotten library from Nintendo’s biggest failure – either a plastic replica or a cheaper cardboard option. That’ll be available on both Switches.

Pokémon meets Minecraft (or more accurately, Dragon Quest Builders, but that’s not as catchy) in Pokémon Pokopia on March 5. This Switch 2 exclusive will task you with using Pokémon moves and materials to design your very own town. I expect Pokopia to be an enormous hit this year: Pokémon and Minecraft are two of the biggest things on the planet, and after everyone’s done poking around the new Animal Crossing update, this looks like the perfect game for that audience to shift to next. Amiibo are trudging on in 2026 as well, and March 5 will also see the launch of the Meta Knight and Shadow Star figure from Kirby Air Riders.

Pokopia is the last firm release date we have, but Nintendo has a few games slated for Spring. Super Mario Bros. Wonder – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition + Meetup in Bellabel Park is an enhanced port of the 2023 platformer, and one part of Nintendo’s ongoing celebration of Super Mario’s 40th anniversary. It adds cooperative and competitive multiplayer minigames, and we’ve seen a small glimpse of what appears to be a new side story in more traditional levels. I predict this will arrive on April 2, the same day as the new pair of Super Mario Galaxy amiibo and just a day before The Super Mario Galaxy Movie hits theaters, putting a new Mario game on store shelves at the exact moment Mario Mania kicks in.

The other pair of Spring releases is Yoshi and the Mysterious Book on Switch 2 and Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream on Switch 1. Yoshi’s illustrated art style looks really nice, and Tomodachi Life is an exciting return for a 3DS cult classic with a hilarious out-of-left-field personality that you really have to see for yourself.

There’s even more coming later in 2026: Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave will mark the strategy RPG’s first outing on Switch 2, Nintendo and FromSoftware are teaming up for The Duskbloods as a Switch 2 action-RPG exclusive, while Switch 1 players can look forward to Rhythm Heaven: Groove, the return of Nintendo’s quirky rhythm minigame series for the first time in a decade. Finally, Pokémon Champions is a competitive battle-focused game coming to Switch and Mobile this year. We know it will be used at the Pokémon World Championships in 2026, meaning it should be out before that event kicks off in late August.

On the third-party front, Switch 2 is getting a lot of major games on day one, including huge support from Capcom with Resident Evil Requiem on February 27 (along with Resident Evil 7 and 8 on the same day), Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection on March 13, and Pragmata on April 24. Plus, all three of those games are getting their own amiibo figures. There’s a lot beyond Capcom, too, like Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, 007 First Light, and more. Hopefully we’ll see cleaned up versions of games delayed out of 2025 as well, like Elden Ring Tarnished Edition and Borderlands 4.

Pokémon’s 30th Birthday Bash

A huge element of Nintendo’s 2026 will no doubt be Pokémon, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. You can safely expect a Pokémon Presents around February 27, and – as we move firmly into the speculation part of this yearly preview – I think it’s going to be a big one. I predict Pokémon’s 10th Generation will be 2026’s November release for Switch 2, and that we’ll get our first look at them here. I don’t think there’s any chance Pokémon misses out on its 30th anniversary without a new pair of mainline games.

But that’s not all: I think 2026 is finally the year that Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow come to Switch. I don’t think they’ll join the Nintendo Switch Online subscription library – it’ll make you buy them separately – but similar to how the Gen One games were dropped on 3DS to celebrate the franchise’s 20th anniversary in 2016, I think Nintendo will run the same play here and shadowdrop them the day of the presentation. The Pokémon Company is also planning to open PokéPark Kanto in Tokyo, Japan, on February 5, the first-ever Pokémon theme park.

What Else Could Nintendo Have In Store?

We’re in an interesting spot where Nintendo has already shown a lot of its cards for 2026, but I still think there are a few things we don’t know about. There is Splatoon Raiders, the single-player Switch 2 spinoff announced last year, but Nintendo hasn’t committed to that launching in 2026 at all, and it feels more fitting as an early 2027 release to me at this point.

With November likely taken up by Pokémon, that leaves October open for a Nintendo franchise fitting for spooky season: Luigi’s Mansion. Next Level Games has been quiet since 2022’s Mario Strikers: Battle League (except for a small assisting role on Metroid Prime 4: Beyond), and given its usual three-year turnaround time on Nintendo games, I think it’s time for Luigi’s Mansion 4. The last in the series was a huge sales success, so a sequel is a no-brainer. Just for fun, I’ll guess that the setting will be a haunted cruise ship Luigi has inherited for some strange reason.

2026 also marks the 40th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda. With a movie on the way in 2027, and Nintendo’s general pattern of launching at least one Zelda game every year, it’s a safe bet to say something Zelda-related will come out this year. I don’t think a new 2D or 3D Zelda game is close to being ready, so it’s probably time for another remake or remaster. I’ll guess fans will finally get the Ocarina of Time HD remake they want, but it won’t be perfect: it’ll be a touched up HD remaster of the 3DS remake that comes to both the original Switch and Switch 2, rather than the gorgeous 4K reimagining we all dream about.

On the smaller side, I have to imagine Nintendo is prepping DLC for Mario Kart World, and all signs point to it centering around Donkey Kong. DK and Pauline strangely only have one costume apiece in World, there are no Jungle-themed DK tracks, and Nintendo’s wider push for DK would lend itself to a DLC pack themed around him. And, I’d like 2026 to be the year we finally get answers surrounding Nintendo’s mysterious Switch Online Playtest program that's been running since 2024.

I think that’s about all the room we have for 2026’s calendar, but Nintendo will announce a few games this year we won’t see until 2027. Xenoblade developer Monolith Soft hasn’t released a brand new game since 2022, and I have a feeling we might get a quick tease at what they’re working on in the September Nintendo Direct.

And, my boldest call of them all is that we’ll get a tease this year for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Nintendo Switch 2 Edition to launch sometime in 2027. I believe Ultimate could get the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe treatment this generation, with an enhanced port that carries us through the next several years rather than an entirely new entry. Smash Bros. director Masahiro Sakurai wrapped up Kirby Air Riders a few months ago, and it’s entirely possible he’s already hard at work bringing Ultimate over to Switch 2 with a few new characters. Ultimate noticeably hasn’t received a Switch 2 performance patch like Super Mario Odyssey, the open-world Zeldas, and plenty of other best-selling Switch 1 games, and combined with the fact that a new Smash game almost always hits within the first two years of a new Nintendo console, it feels like a prime candidate for a Switch 2 Edition.

Nintendo Will Continue Expanding Beyond Games

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will hit theaters on April 3, three years after the original made over a billion dollars at the global box office. I think Nintendo will waste no time in announcing its next animated partnership with Illumination, given they’re likely very confident this movie will perform extremely well like the first one did. I’m expecting a formal announcement of an animated Donkey Kong movie sometime before the end of 2026. You should also expect to see the first trailer for The Legend of Zelda movie before the year is over.

Finally, in a bit of a bummer prediction to end on, I’m expecting a Switch 2 price increase sometime after March. Nintendo has essentially committed to keeping the price where it is through the end of its fiscal year – which concludes March 31 – but there are no guarantees after that. We’ve already seen increases on the original Switch, as well as Switch 2 accessories, so it feels like it’s only a matter of time before Switch 2 follows suit.

And that’s everything we expect from Nintendo in 2026. What game are you most excited for? Have you picked up a Switch 2, or are you still happy with the original? Let us know in the comments.

Logan Plant is the host of Nintendo Voice Chat and IGN's Database Manager & Playlist Editor. The Legend of Zelda is his favorite video game franchise of all time, and he is patiently awaiting the day Nintendo announces a brand new F-Zero. You can find him online @LoganJPlant.

What to Expect From Xbox in 2026

IGN

Par :Matt Purslow

3 janvier 2026 à 18:00

Well, I can confidently say one thing about being “the Xbox guy” at IGN: it’s never boring. Granted, it is often frustrating, depressing, weird, and occasionally shocking. But there’s almost never a dull moment. So went Xbox’s 2025. As I looked back on last year’s version of this column, I found that I got plenty of my forecasting right, a few things wrong, and there was some stuff I could’ve never predicted. And so as I look ahead to Xbox’s 2026, I will once again expect the unexpected – but I’ll also dig into everything we can reasonably surmise about what could maybe, possibly be the last full calendar year of the Xbox Series generation before Microsoft seemingly gears up to release a console/PC hybrid.

The thing is, a month ago, this piece would’ve been a heck of a lot easier to write. It would’ve been all about Microsoft’s Big Four – Halo, Gears of War, Fable, and Forza – all returning in the same year for the first time in over a decade(!) to deliver Xbox’s biggest and possibly best lineup since the Xbox 360 days. But then Galactus, aka Grand Theft Auto 6, showed up to consume everything in its path, as it’s been delayed from May to November of 2026 and will now effectively have November onwards – a key holiday-shopping window of Q4 every year – all to itself. Any game company executive that willingly ships a game anywhere near GTA 6 should be fired and institutionalized. It’s not just a bad idea, it’s business suicide.

Clash of the Titans

And yes, nearly every major publisher will be affected by this to some degree; Sony has the long-anticipated Marvel’s Wolverine slated for the Fall, and Nintendo…well, maybe Nintendo is the exception to the Grand Theft Auto rule. But Microsoft is potentially the most screwed by Rockstar’s shifted timeline. Halo: Campaign Evolved is surely intended to ship right near Halo’s 25th anniversary on November 15. Uh-oh. Meanwhile, Gears of War: E-Day was almost certainly scheduled for the Fall (to wit: none of the five mainline Gears games has ever shipped outside of the Fall season), Fable’s hugely anticipated revival was probably penciled in for the holiday season after Playground Games delayed it, and Forza Horizon 6? OK, I’d bet on that one dropping sooner rather than later, because a Forza Horizon game doesn’t need a big public relations or marketing campaign. It’s such a powerhouse franchise with a sterling reputation that all fans need to know is where it’s set (Japan), what new cars are in it (TBD), and how soon they can play it. Once Forza Horizon 6 was announced at the Tokyo Game Show in late September, I figured it would probably be out within six months. And I still think that.

And what about Call of Duty for 2026, which the franchise’s alternating development timeline suggests is probably Modern Warfare 4 from Infinity Ward? Historically, Activision’s annual juggernaut always arrives within a two-week window between the last week of October and the first week of November. Considering how much overlap I’d guess there is between Call of Duty and GTA in the Venn Diagram of Casual-Leaning Gamers Who Only Buy a Couple Games a Year, which one do you think those people are going to choose if they can only afford to buy one of them (particularly given that they’re each likely to cost at least $80)? I know which one I’d pick…

Step Up or Back Off?

In fact, what happens to all of Microsoft’s big presumed Fall plans now that Rockstar has planted its flag in the ground for November 19? The short answer is that I’m not sure all five of Xbox’s biggest first-party games can ship in 2026 anymore. Not if Microsoft wants to make any money on them, anyway. The good news is that all of these games have a great chance to be fantastic titles that score big with critics and fans alike. Microsoft just has to make sure they don’t get squashed like bugs under Grand Theft Auto 6’s Godzilla-sized feet. It’s reasonable to expect one or both of Fable and Gears of War: E-Day to push into the first half of 2027, while I’d bet on Call of Duty being moved up as much as possible – mid-October might be as far forward as they can pull it without crunching all of its developers to death. And if Forza Horizon 6 isn’t already planned for the first half of 2026 (and again, I’m confident that it is), I’d guess that somewhere around August is the new plan.

And that’s not even everything. State of Decay 3, Clockwork Revolution, and Hideo Kojima’s OD feel like they’re a little further out than next year, but there’s one lesser-known game that might stand toe-to-toe with anything else Xbox has coming up: promising pixel-art potential masterpiece Replaced. The debut game from Sad Cat Studios will finally land as an Xbox exclusive in 2026. I’ve played it, and it sets off my Spidey Sense as something that could be truly special – a possible generation-defining indie game, like how Limbo and Braid were for the Xbox 360 and Inside was for the Xbox One.

The Cavalry Has Arrived

Regardless of exactly when each of Xbox’s blockbusters finally drop, though, the Xbox’s Big Four couldn’t be lining up to land at a better time, because the Xbox brand image is in tatters. Repeated mass layoffs. Game cancellations. Studio closures. Halo heading to PS5, which was the biggest, clearest white flag Microsoft waved to tell gamers, “It’s fine, you don’t need an Xbox; you can play any and all of our games on other platforms if you want to.” It was a Covenant energy sword through the heart for long-loyal Xbox fans.

All Xbox gamers have ever wanted is a Sony-like pipeline of awesome games on a consistent basis. It would seem we’ve finally got what we’ve wanted – over the past 12 or so months, Xbox has shipped Black Ops 6 and 7, STALKER 2, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Avowed, South of Midnight, Flight Simulator 2024, Doom: The Dark Ages, Ninja Gaiden 2 Black and Ninja Gaiden 4, Gears of War Reloaded, The Outer Worlds 2, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered — but not without the monkey’s paw curling in the process.

Split Personality

And so as we look ahead to what to expect from Xbox in 2026, software shines brighter than ever. Hardware…well, rumors of the next-gen Xbox/PC hybrid are flying fast and furious, so could that mean an official announcement at the 2026 Xbox Showcase in June followed by a release in Fall 2027? And as for the platform? I'm not sure what, if anything, can be done to revive excitement in that.

So where does that leave Xbox heading into Year 6 of the Series X|S generation? Paradoxically, it is both better and worse off than it’s ever been, for all of the reasons I’ve already gone over. Exclusives are dead, but great games are plentiful. Hardware is more expensive than it was at launch, but there’s a pretty sweet handheld now. Life as an Xbox fan is both awesome and terrible, and I’m not sure I can sum it up any better than that.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

The Biggest Games Coming in 2026

IGN

Par :Matt Purslow

1 janvier 2026 à 18:00

Happy new year, or almost new year, or just… whatever time it is when you’re reading this. For me, it’s the very tail end of 2025, and what better time to take a look ahead at some of the games coming out in the new year? Here are 2026’s biggest game releases

Before we get into it, just a heads up that this is by no means a 100% comprehensive guide to all the games coming out in 2026, as many of those haven’t even been announced yet. Also, as always, release dates are subject to change - I made something very much like this exactly a year ago in which I told you that GTA would be the biggest game of 2025… assuming it came out in 2025, which it didn’t. So, this is true in our regular monthly game release updates, but it’s especially true when we’re talking about games that are 11 months away, or games that don’t have release dates yet.

January

On January 15, Animal Crossing: New Horizons gets a new lease on life, and also a new mortgage to pay off when the beloved debt, yard work, and interior decoration sim comes to Switch 2 - and if you happen to be one of the 50 million people who bought Animal Crossing on the original Switch, you’ll be happy to hear that you can upgrade to the Switch 2 version for just 5 bucks. Meanwhile, if you’re still playing on Switch 1, you’ll still be getting access to a ton of new features with the 3.0 update, which adds a ton of new features including hotel renovation, and in-game items based on other Nintendo properties, as well as LEGO’s line of Animal Crossing sets.

You can’t spell “Purchase a Game In January” without JRPG, or a lot of other letters, but this is the time of year when fans of that particular genre are bound to be especially busy. Still on the 15th, there’s The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond The Horizon, which is the seventeenth installment in The Legend of Heroes series, or the thirteenth installment in the Trails series, and a direct sequel to 2022’s Legend of Heroes Trails Through Daybreak II. That’s coming to all the Switches, PlayStations, and PC.

On the 22nd, Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade comes to Nintendo Switch 2 and Xbox Series as well as Xbox on PC - this includes the base game, all the visual and technical improvements that it got when it was ported to PS5, a whole side story that follows Yuffie, and this latest release will add a new streamlined mode that maxes out your party’s stats and has all attacks do 9,999 damage so you can just blow through the story.

Not quite a JRPG, but JRPG-adjacent, Dynasty Warriors Origins also hits Switch 2 that day, alongside the Visions of Four Heroes DLC expansion, which also comes to the other platforms the game’s already on.

On the 26th, Highguard drops, which is the new PVP raid game from a bunch of ex-Respawn devs who worked on Titanfall and Apex Legends - and while you can see some similar DNA, it’s clearly going a very different direction, and instead of bunch of a bunch of wallrunning dudes and Neil Blomkamp mechs, it’s got more fantasy flair - so if you’ve ever wanted to bear arms while riding a bear, go nuts. That’s free to play on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series.

Finally, rounding out January’s JRPGs, on the 28th there's The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin, an open-world RPG based on the hit anime series for PS5, PC, and mobile. And then on the 30th, there’s Code Vein 2, the sequel to Bandai Namco’s 2019 vampire anime soulslike, which is on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC.

At some point in January, 2XKO will hit PS5 and Xbox series, which is Riot Games’ 2v2 fighting game featuring a roster of characters from League of Legends - that’s been in early access on PC since October.

February

On February 5, Dragon Quest 7 Reimagined hits PS5, Xbox Series, both Switches, and PC. Originally released stateside for PS1 in 2001, and then 3DS 15 years after that, it’s now getting a full modern overhaul. JRPGs aren’t exactly known for being concise, but this one is pretty infamously beefy, and don’t be surprised if you sink 100 hours into this just doing the main quest.

If you’d rather just make a bunch of colorful characters hit each other, My Hero Academia: All’s Justice is a 3v3 arena fighter featuring several dozen characters from the beloved anime series. That’s on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC February 6.

Also on the 6th is Nioh 3, the third installment in Team Ninja’s tough-as-balls soulslike series that is actually its first true sequel, as Nioh 2 took place before the events of the first game - which probably has no bearing whatsoever on the moment to moment combat that’s the main selling point here. That’s on PS5 and PC.

On February 11, Romeo is a Deadman is the latest whackadoo action game from Suda51 and the fine folks at Grasshopper Manufacture, who gave us such cult classics as Killer7 and No More Heroes - this latest one looks to be as stylish, absurd, and over-the-top as we’ve come to expect. That’s on PS5, Xbox series and PC. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing a lot of really interesting people in this job, and Suda is one of my favorites - we did one with him years ago where we asked a bunch of really stupid questions rapid-fire and he didn’t skip a beat. So anyway, I’m happy to see he’s keeping busy making weird cool games.

On the 12th, Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties hits everything but Xbox One. Yakuza 3 was originally released for the PS3 back in 2009, and though it was included with the remastered collection in 2019, that version didn't get any major graphical or gameplay improvements. Kiwami 3, on the other hand, is a full modern overhaul, so this’ll play as great as it looks - and the Dark Ties expansion is a whole new side story.

Still that day on Switch 2 is Mario Tennis Fever, which may sound like a fun casual sports game, but it’s also a very serious medical condition that can be deadly if not treated immediately. If you develop symptoms of Mario Tennis Fever while playing this game, please consult a Dr. Mario.

On the 13th we’re getting High on Life 2, the follow-up to the excellent 2022 first-person metroidvania - and between the first game, its High on Knife DLC, and now this, I gotta give the team at Squanch Games credit for shipping two and a half Metroid Prime-likes in half the time it took Retro to get Metroid Prime 4 out the door. Also, High on Life 2 is the only way you can legally purchase the classic 1991 Wisdom Tree platformer Bible Adventures for current consoles.

On February 20, Ys X: Proud Nordics is the latest Japanese action RPG rooted in Scandinavian folklore - and it’s actually an enhanced re-release of 2023’s Ys X: Nordics, but with enough added abilities, bosses and levels that it’s apparently very proud of itself. That’s coming to PS5, PC, and Switch 2.

On the 24th, Tides of Tomorrow hits PS5, Xbox Series and PC, which is set in a vibrant post-apocalyptic ocean world that’s riddled with microplastics, and where the choices made by other players in their game will affect how the narrative in yours unfolds.

On February 27, Resident Evil: Requiem - or the ninth mainline entry, if you’re keeping count - hits Xbox Series, PS5, PC, and Switch 2. I’m fairly late to the Resident Evil party, but as someone who liked 7, loved 8, and adored the remakes, I’m fairly lukewarm on what I’ve seen of this one so fair - but I’m also willing to give it a shot, since that team has been knocking it out the park with this series.

Any Switch 2 owners looking to play catchup, Resident Evil 7 and 8 - AKA Biohazard and Village - are also coming to the hybrid handheld that day as well. They got cloud-streamed versions on Switch 1, but this is the first time they’ll be playable locally on Nintendo hardware.

March

On March 5, Pokemon Pokopia comes to Switch 2, which sort of looks like Animal Crossing, except you play as a ditto who is masquerading as a human being, something that will never not be totally unsettling.

Hitting PC, Xbox Series and PS5 on March 12, John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is a post-apocalyptic co-op FPS that’s been developed by the World War Z team with some input from the legendary horror filmmaker turned grouchy hardcore gamer, and it looks as though it’ll sit well with anyone wishing the Left 4 Dead franchise hadn’t been… abandoned in a seemingly deceased state. That’s on Xbox Series, PS5, and PC.

That same day on PC is Solasta 2, the follow-up to the very well-received 2021 tactical CRPG, which should click with anybody who’s had their fill of Baldur’s Gate 3 and needs to kill some time before Divinity.

Also on March 12, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake hits all the newer consoles and PC, and that’s a modern do-over of the 2003 survival horror game that’s sort of like Pokémon Snap but with scary ghosts instead of cute animals.

If you’d prefer a game about making friends scary animals, on the 13th, there’s Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection for those same platforms, which puts a more conventional turn-based JRPG spin on Capcom’s hit creature clobberer series.

If you’re more into big huge sprawling open-world RPGs with fast-paced realtime combat, on the 19th there’s Crimson Desert, the single player spinoff of Black Desert Online. That’s on Xbox Series, PS5, and PC.

If you’d rather just shoot olde tymie cartoon criminal critters, Mouse: P.I. For Hire looks to like a boomer shooter with Cuphead aesthetics - that’s on everything

On March 26, Screamer hits PS5, Xbox Series, and PS5 - I heard about this game a while ago, and was wondering what was taking so long since the gameplay looked like it was in a pretty good state. The trailer that dropped during The Game Awards answered the hell out of that question: in addition to being a racing game, this is also a cyberpunk anime, and it sure looks like those cutscenes took a while. So, if you’ve ever wished for a cross between Redline and Initial D with playable races, here you go!

April

On April 16, yet another game with literary inspirations is Cthulu: The Cosmic Abyss, a first person thriller mired in the unthinkable cosmic horrors of the works of H.P. Lovecraft, so that should be a nice cheerful jaunt. That’s on Xbox Series, PS5, and PC.

On April 24 arrives Pragmata, which is a totally new sci-fi property from Capcom that pairs third-person shooting with some realtime hacking minigames, which seems cool.

On a similar note, on April 30, the folks who gave us Returnal are back with Saros, a roguelite third-person bullet hell, which stars the wonderful Rahul Kohli and takes place in a sci-fi setting that’s cribbing from Robert W. Chambers' proto-lovecraftian classic, The King in Yellow.

May

On May 8th, Mortal Kombat 2 hits theaters, the first of two very fun-looking fighting game movies. Something I very much appreciated about the first game is they didn’t make use of the whole roster, and saved some big names for round two - namely, Johnny Cage, who looks to be very much the central focus of the sequel, and he’s being played by the ever-delightful Karl Urban. Very excited to watch him do a split and punch someone in the groin.

On May 27, we’ll get high speed chases and every other kind of action in 007 First Light, a game I’m trying not to get too excited about, but which i can’t not - after all, it’s from the team behind Hitman: World of Assassinaiton, which is already basically the best James Bond game to date, except this one’s actually about Ian Fleming’s legendary spy. Anyway that’s coming to all the newer consoles and PC.

LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is the closest thing to an Arkham game we’ll be getting anytime soon, and while it might not have quite the massive roster of playable characters as TT Games’ previous LEGO titles, it looks to be making up for it with much tighter combat. That’s on all the newer boxes and also PC on May 29.

September

Illfonic, the studio that gave us asymmetrical multiplayer horror games based on Friday the 13th, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, and Predator are giving the granddaddy of all slashers the same treatment with John Carpenter’s original Halloween, which’ll also have a single player mode this time around. That’s coming to Xbox Series, PS5 and PC on September 8.

On September 12, Phantom Blade Zero hits PC and PS5, which looks like a soulslike or a hack and slash action game, and while it is an action RPG with lots of hacking and slashing, it’s apparently doing its own thing that’s somewhere in the middle - whatever the hell it is, buzz on this one is killer.

October

Not a game, but obviously worth including is the newest Street Fighter movie, which looks like an absolute blast and I’ve been hyping this movie up since the first casting announcements trickled out - it’s directed by Kitao Sakurai, who is best known for his work with Eric Andre on the Eric Andre Show and the film Bad Trip, which has involved a lot of people getting injured in entertaining ways in public places as well as a few cars getting destroyed, so I think this movie is going to kick ass. That hits theaters October 16 and I will be there opening night.

November

And of course, the biggest game of 2026, the 2020s as a whole, and possibly all time, assuming it ever comes out, is Grand Theft Auto 6, which is hitting Xbox Series and PS5 on November 19 - a date which basically every other game in development is steering clear of. At this point we’ve been waiting so long for this game that it’s just stopped seeming like something I’ll ever get to play - but someday, I’ll get to actually play it, I think, and I hope it’s this year!

Now, that takes us to the very end of games that currently have release dates - but there a whole lot more that just have vague 2026 releases planned, so here’s what we’ve got right now:

Sometime in 2026

Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes is expected sometime in the first quarter of 2026, which lets you strategically square off with Cylons on PC.

At some point in 2026, Starfield is supposedly coming to PS5, and while Bethesda's dropped a handful of updates post-launch, I feel like players weren’t quite over the moon for this one - but who knows, maybe it’ll get some more tweaks and content alongside its eventual PlayStation version.

Super Meat Boy 3D adds a whole extra dimension to Team Meat’s beloved indie platformer, and that’s coming to PS5, Xbox Series, and PC.

Zero Parades: For Dead Spies is the latest offbeat and extremely cerebral CRPG from the developers of Disco Elysium. This is clearly a spiritual successor, but rather than take cues from detective fiction, Zero Parades is all about the world of espionage - specifically, the nerve-racking deception-based kind, not the sexy hollywood kind. That’s coming to PC and PS5.

If you want a game that takes place inside books, but involves a lot less reading, Chronoscript: The Endless End is an exploration based action-adventure sidescroller - or maybe more accurately, page turner. That’s on PS5 and PC as well.

Thick as Thieves is a PvPvE stealth game from Warren Spector, who was behind the original Deus Ex, and that’s sneaking onto PS5, Xbox Series, and PC at some point in 2026

If you’re sad we haven’t gotten a brand new Metal Gear Solid game in over a decade, you might want to keep an eye on Mudang: Two Hearts, which looks like like a similar blend of stealth, action, tactical military stuff, and over the top sci-fi nonsense, and that’s coming to PS5, Xbox Series, and PC as well.

If you like sequels, don’t worry, they’re still making lots of those: if you want to go on a power trip, you can be a tyrannical dictator in Tropico 7. If you’d rather feel utterly powerless, you can get punched so hard your soul flies out of your body in Mortal Shell 2. Those are both on the big consoles and PC. On Switch 2 and PC, you can go dungeon-crawling through even more bullet hells in Enter the Gungeon 2.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword marks the long-awated return of Capcom’s PS2-era supernatural samurai series, and that’s coming to Xbox Series, PS5, and PC.

If you want to travel through time and fight some ex boyfriends, there’s Scott Pilgrim EX, the long-awaited follow-up to hit beat-em-up based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s beloved Canadian manga, which is on basically everything.

Speaking of Canadians, Marvel’s fan favorite canucklehead finally slices and dices his way onto PS5 sometime in the fall - Insomniac’s long-awaited Wolverine game is clearly not shying away from an M-rating, but hopefully it’s got as much brains and heart as it does blood and guts.

Two other Marvel games are also in the works expected in 2026 at some point: Skydance’s Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra, which features Cap and Black Panther’s grandpa, who is also Black Panther, fighting in World War 2 on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC. And then there’s Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls on PS5 and PC, a fighting game from Arc System Works that looks like it could be a proper spiritual successor to Marvel Vs Capcom - just, without the Capcom.

Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve is the latest entry in the long running jet pilot sim to try to tempt me into playing it with sequences of stuff happening outside of a jet that are so impressively realistic it makes me forget that I don’t actually enjoy the part where you fly the jet. Don’t get me wrong, I think jets are the coolest thing ever invented and this game looks gorgeous, but aerial dogfighting in video games just never clicks for me. Can I just play the parts where you eat hamburgers and drink beer with your friends on an aircraft carrier? Anyway, that’s on PS5, Xbox Series, and PC

Remedy’s David Lynchian interconnected universe gets a bit bigger with Control: Resonant, which is a continuation of IGN’s 2019 game of the year, but also connects with Alan Wake 2 and FBC Firebreak - and even if you’re not keeping track of what’s going on, this looks like it’ll still be a good time.

I’ve always wondered why nobody’s made any first-person soulslikes, and the trailer for Decrepit answered that question very loudly: because they’d be too fucking scary. Get this shit outta here. Too scary! Just awful! No thank you! That’s on PC for now, so if you play on console, you’re safe from its horrors for the time being. Did you see that spider? Fuck off!

Less scary looking, but from a studio with some major horror chops is Ontos, which is from the folks behind Amnesia and SOMA and takes place in a hotel where a lot of weird stuff is happening, which is to be expected from a hotel that’s on the moon.

If you want something nice and cute in space, there’s the two-player co-op adventure Oribitals on Switch 2 which looks just gorgeous. Lots of games look like anime, but this one specifically looks like a bubble era OVA, which has not just a specific aesthetic, but a certain VHS graininess and poppy sound quality as well, and that’s such a pretentious delineation but as a reformed weeaboo whose formative years were filled with badly dubbed “Japanimation” from Manga Video, I applaud this attention to detail.

Another co-op adventure coming this year is Out of Words, which is all stop-motion featuring handcrafted puppets. I have this theory that Geoff Keighley really loves puppets, and if you make a game with puppets in it, he’s more likely to feature it prominently in one of his shows - Out of Words was one of two puppet-centric games that debuted at Summer Game Fest, the other being Felt That: Boxing, and it showed up again at The Game Awards in between Miss Piggy appearances. Anyway that’s coming to the new consoles and PC.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer is hitting PS5, Xbox Series, and PC at some point in 2026, and I am stoked - like 10 years ago, when it was announced that EA had the Star Wars license, I was like, "Get the people who do Burnout and Need for Speed to do a podracing game." -And well, it took a minute, but we’re getting something even better: a studio founded by a bunch of ex-Criterion devs is making a game like that and EA has nothing to do with it! Also, this isn’t straight podcasting - it’s got a bunch of other speeders and stuff, which reminds me of the criminally underrated 2000 vehicular combat game Star Wars Demolition.

If you thought that was a stupid joke, well, bad news because Stupid Never Dies - which is the name of a video game that’s coming out at some point on PC and PS5. This is a dungeon crawler action game that has some major Lollipop Chainsaw vibes, but it’s actually from a new studio founded by Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who, among other things, worked on Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, and Dragon’s Dogma.

Tankrat is a game where you drive a cool tank around and shoot stuff while also exploring and finding new stuff to make your tank even cooler - and it reminds me of modern version of Blaster Master. You guys remember Blaster Master? No? Well it sort of looked like this except really old. Tankrat is coming to PS5 and PC.

To Be Announced

A whole lot of games just have a vague “TBA” release window, which means that they’ll probably come out someday. And while 2026 seems like a safe bet for most of these, some might even be further down the road, while others might never come out.

If you ever wished they’d do a Star Wars XCOM... well, they’re doing it! Zero Company, or ZCOM for short, is from a studio of ex-Firaxis devs, and looks like a turn-based tactical good time. That’s coming to Xbox, PS5, and PC.

Cinder City is an open-world MMO tactical shooter that looks like it has literally everything in it, and that’s coming to PC at some point - though looking at this game in action, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a 2027 game.

Lords of the Fallen 2 is the sequel to the 2023 soulslike, which was itself the reboot of a game already titled Lords of the Fallen, so this is technically the third Lords of the Fallen game, but who’s keeping track? That’s on the newer non-Nintendo consoles and PC.

All we’ve seen of Road Kings is a cinematic trailer where a dude drives his 18 wheeler straight toward a tornado, but that seems like it was enough to get people hyped. And it’s from Saber, the studio that gave us Mudrunner and Snowrunner and the recent Road Craft, and as a very casual truck game enjoyer, I’m curious to see what their spin on a long-haul trucking sim is like. That’s on PC, Xbox Series, and PS5.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 is the first installment in the fan-fave RTS series in almost a decade, and while it’s not from Relic, the studio that made the first three games, it is from the team behind another well-received RTS, Iron Harvest. That’s coming to PC.

Tomodachi Life might not have quite the same name-brand recognition as Animal Crossing, but the original mii-centric social game released in 2014 was the 11th best-selling 3DS game of all time, so it’s a surprise it’s taken Nintendo this long to make another one. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream will be on Switch.

Somebody put The Elder Scrolls 6 on our list of upcoming game releases, and while that’ll probably come out someday, I would be shocked if it dropped in 2026. However, if you’re after a big pretty fantasy RPG from Xbox Game Studios, Fable seems a lot more likely for a fall release. This one is from Playground Games, the studio that gave us Forza Horizon, so I’m stoked to see how they tackle wizard stuff.

Speaking of Forza Horizon, the sixth entry is expected sometime in 2026, and though there have been rumblings it might launch in the first half of the year, nothing official on that front aside from the fact that it’s set in Japan this time around. Fable and Forza Horizon are both hitting Xbox Series and PC, with PS5 versions probably arriving later on, if recent Xbox release strategy is anything to go on.

Gears of War turns 20 in 2026, and to mark the occasion we’re hopefully getting a brand new installment with E-Day. This is a prequel set 14 years before the first game and will follow Marcus Fenix during the events of Emergence Day, when the big scary guys you’ve been shooting at and chainsawing into pieces in all the other installments first started coming out of holes in the ground. That’ll be on Xbox and PC for sure, and again, maybe PS5 at some point too.

Another major franchise celebrating a big anniversary is Tomb Raider, which turns 30 - To celebrate, we’re getting Legacy of Atlantis, a full ground-up Unreal Engine 5 remake of the original Tomb Raider. It certainly looks pretty, but I’m curious how much it plays like the originals. That’ll be on Xbox Series, PS5, and PC.

If you ever wished for a distant prequel to the Plague Tale games that swapped the medieval European setting for an ancient Greek one, well… you’re in luck! Because that’s exactly what Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy is - and that’s coming to Xbox Series, PS5, and PC

The Adventures of Elliott: The Millennium Tales is the latest game from the folks behind Bravely Default and Octopath Traveller, and hopefully you won’t have to wait a thousand years to play - that one’s coming to all the newer consoles and PC.

Usually it’s bad when a game freezes, but sometimes that’s a feature, not a bug - like the bleak frigid survival game Blackfrost: The Long Dark 2, or Frostrail, a survival game that’s also bleak and frigid, but at least you have a train - those are both coming to PC - and there’s also Ikuma: The Frozen Compass, a coming of age story set in the arctic, which seems frigid, but less bleak - which is on PC, as well as Xbox Series and PS5.

If you’d like to try your hand at surviving while submerged in melted ice, ie: water, Subnautica 2 is hitting early access on PC and Xbox any day now. And by “now” I mean at some point in the coming year.

If you’d rather go on adventures above the waves, Sea of Remnants is a bright and colorful ocean-world RPG, which is slated to hit PC and PS5 at some point. If you prefer rails to sails, there’s also Denshattack, which looks like Jet Grind Radio, except you play as a train. Sure why not! That’s on PC as well as Xbox Series and PS5.

At some point The Duskbloods is coming out, which is FromSoftware’s Switch 2 exclusive foray into the world of PvE multiplayer, and I know I’m not the only one who’s disappointed that something that looks so much like Bloodborne isn’t an action RPG. Still, as arcane as this game looks, my intelligence is high enough that I’ll pump a few points into having faith that Hidetaka Miyazaki and company know what they’re doing.

If you ever wished Hotline Miami was about actual animal men and not just men in animal masks, well, get a load of Kusan: City of Wolves - it’s exactly what I just described. That’s coming to PC as well as Switch, Xbox Series and both PlayStations.

The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake has been in development for several dumptrucks worth of hourglass-grade silica powder, but at some point this year, that’s supposedly coming out - and hopefully it’s worth the wait.

Another Ubisoft remake we’ve been hearing about for almost as long is Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, which isn’t even officially announced, but will presumably come to modern consoles and PC if and when it ever gets released.

Valor Mortis is another first-person action soulslike from the studio behind Ghostrunner, which seems like a novel enough idea and hopefully has less spiders than Decrepit - and it’s coming to Xbox Series, PS5, and PC.

Originally slated for a fall 2025 release, Directive 8020: A Dark Pictures Game is the latest cinematic choose-your-own-adventure game from the folks at Supermassive, which is coming to Xbox Series, PS5, and PC.

Dune: Awakening has been going strong on PC for a while now, and at some point in the foreseeable future, it’ll be getting Xbox Series and PS5 versions as well.

And last but not least, 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the launch of the Pokémon series. In addition to Pokopia, we’re also getting the strategy game Pokemon Champions - I have a hunch those aren’t the only two Pokémon games that’ll be dropping this year, but they’re the only two we officially know about right now.

So, there you go! That’s a look ahead at the biggest games coming in 2026 that we know about right now. Some of these might not actually come out in the next 12 months, but a whole lot more that I didn’t mention here that definitely will. If you want regular and slightly more accurate breakdowns of what games are coming on a more timely basis, keep an eye out for our monthly big game release videos - in fact, we should have one about January’s games, including a few that didn’t make it into this video.

I have no doubt in my mind that there’s some big huge obvious game coming out in 2026 that we forgot to mention, so please, whatever we forgot, share it in the comments. But also, and I always say this and very few people pay attention - tell us what the games we left out are about! Why should people care? Sharing a cool recommendation is one of the best feelings in the world, so if there’s a game you’re stoked on, tell us about it!