For one reason or another, I don't have much insight for 2026. There seems to be a fair bit of decent stuff on the way, though not a lot of it of interest to me.
I think Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to be all what anyone talks about for awhile. The industry is in a bit of a lurch at the moment and a number of people are hoping this game will save it. That is, if it even comes out. It was supposed to come out last year.
The only new hardware I know about this year is a new line of Steam machines, controllers, and VR from Valve.
Here are some of the bigger games expected (or possible) in 2026:
Grand Theft Auto 7
Marvel's Wolverine
Resident Evil Requiem
007 First Light
Control Resonant
Fable
Marathon
Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave
Monster Hunter Stories 3
Nioh 3
Pragmata
Phantom Blade Zero
Onimusha: Way of the Sword
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve
Dragon Quest VII Reimagined
Slay the Spire 2
Is anyone looking forward to anything in particular this year? I'm interested in a few of these, but the only one I really care about at the moment is the new Fire Emblem. I'm swimming in too many old games to be too excited for new ones at the moment. Wolverine? I haven't played Spiderman 2 yet. Resident Evil 9? I still haven't played 8. etc etc
This post contains my sorting system for the monthly threads. I don't have the energy to maintain it like I used to, but it should still be a handy way to look at past months.
As with previous years, I'm using multiplatform to list games that release on multiple platforms including PC, Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo. It doesn't guarantee that it is coming out on every one of these. Platform specific categories are largely for exclusives.
PC
Multiplatform
Gothic 1 Remake (June) - action rpg
The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales (June) - action rpg
Denshattack! (June) - platformer
EA Sports UFC 6 (June) - sports
NBA The Run (June) - sports
Hell Let Loose: Vietnam (June) - first person shooter/multiplayer
The 7th Guest Remake (June) - puzzle adventure
Dead or Alive 6 Last Round (June) - fighting/remaster
PS5
Xbox Series X/S
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (June) - rpg
Switch 2
Star Fox (June) - on-rails shooter
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (June) - rpg
Spoiler for past releases:
Spoiler for January:
PC
Pathologic 3 (January) - survival horror
Multiplatform
Highguard (January) - hero shooter
Code Vein II (January) - action rpg
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon (January) - rpg
Mio: Memories in Orbit (January) - action/adventure platformer
Cairn (January) - rock-climbing sim
PS5
Xbox Series X/S
Switch 2
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (January) - social sim
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade (January) - rpg
Well, Subnautica 2 should be coming out in 2026, postponed from 2025.
I loved the first one and the expansion, though I only wish that it could've been Co-Op'ed. Subnautica 2 can - So I'm super looking forward to that one. :-)
The Forza Horizon news comes from the latest Xbox Developer Direct (or whatever it's called) presentation. Here is what else was shown:
Fable - Gets a vague release date for later this year. Some of what they showed/talked about was pretty common for the genre (customize your character) but they also showed and talked about some of the systems Fable is typically known for. You can own real estate, marry npcs, there is a reputation system that will change how npcs respond to you, etc.
Forza Horizon 6 - The new feature that stood out to me the most is that this one is set in Japan. Now that these games are coming out on PS5 as well I wonder if it will see a boost from the Japanophile crowd. It looks nice, regardless.
Kiln - A small project Double Fine made in between their larger games. It's an online multiplayer brawler/party game in which you make pottery and then play as said pottery and try to douse the flames of the enemy team's kiln.
Beast of Reincarnation - A new sci-fi fantasy action rpg in which you play as a futuristic samurai woman with a wolf companion, made by the creators of Pokemon. This was pretty interesting to me, as despite how successful Pokemon is, the games always get mediocre reception due to poor performance, dated design, etc. They have the money to do better, but they don't. This game already looks like it has a higher budget than any Pokemon game I've ever seen, it's bizarre. Edit: Apparently they have been working on this for six years. Pokemon games have more strict release windows, so this is the explanation I've seen for the quality difference.
Sony has had their own spring games presentation, and while I have not watched it yet, I did notice that Death Stranding 2 is getting a PC release date for March.
I'm not sure if it will actually come out this year, but Sony recently announced their next Horizon game. It's called Hunters Gathering and is a three player co-op multiplayer game with a cartoony aesthetic, over-the top characters, and flashy action combat. Basically nothing like the other Horizon games other than the world setting.
Now I've got nothing against spin offs but Sony's recent obsession with "live service" games is incredibly bizarre. Just about every new known project from the past few years has been a multiplayer game, and half of them end up getting canceled anyway. And that's just the ones they officially announce. I swear just about every popular single player Sony franchise had a team trying to make a live service version of it. Past tense, because like I said, a lot of them got canceled and then their teams laid off. It's frustrating.
Sony had a new State of Play the other day with a ton of stuff in it. Not going to post all of it, but they had a new gameplay trailer for one of their biggest games this year, Wolverine from Insomniac (Spider Man).
It's very violent, so I'm not sure how well the embedded video will work. You might have to log in to Youtube to view it.
As a side note, I didn't mention it anywhere when it happened, but earlier this year Sony announced they will no longer be porting their exclusives to PC. That means this, the new God of War, and probably even Ghost of Yotei from last year.
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