Gamescom 2025: All the news, trailers, and previews

Twisted Pixel’s Deadpool VR game puts Marvel’s fourth-wall breaking antihero under contract with the reality TV villain Mojo, voiced by John Leguizamo. Deadpool (voiced by Neil Patrick Harris) is tasked with recruiting Marvel’s biggest villains to join Mojo’s series, and the 30-minute demo I tried on the floor of Gamescom started that process with lots of dismemberment and entertaining snark. Waving around my virtual katanas left me sweaty and eager for another round of slashing and shooting.

Deadpool’s first target is Lady Deathstrike, who is about to become the leader of an order of ninjas. Even though Deadpool says they go way back — taking classes together at ninja school and even making out — she’s not interested. To underscore that point, she has her agents decapitate him, cut off his limbs, and dump his body in a swamp. It’s a bold way to start things off, and from that point I was locked in.

Forget humans, animals, extraterrestrials, or any sort of fantasy creature, in Double Fine's Keeper, you play as a lighthouse — a living, walking lighthouse. Atmospheric puzzle-adventure Keeper, created by Lee Petty and Double Fine Productions, is among the strangest games showcased during Gamescom Opening Night Live.

While the artsy visuals may have intrigued you, the teaser creates more questions than it answers. Why does the lighthouse awaken? Where is it going? And more importantly, what sort of challenges will it run into? Following a preview at Gamescom, I can answer… well, some of those questions.

Playing Onimusha: Way of the Sword recently was refreshing for two reasons: One, it’s been nearly 20 years since the most recent mainline entry in the series, and it was just nice to return to the once-hot Capcom franchise. And two, Way of the Sword is not a Soulslike, a genre that I love, but that is currently in overly abundant supply.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword is a samurai action game, but quite unlike Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and the Nioh games in its pace and challenge level. There is depth to the swordplay and there are massive monsters to fight, but there is an easier difficulty and an overall more relaxed vibe. Of course, I was playing an early section of the game, so things may get much more complex and challenging, but I enjoyed playing something that was comparatively low stress.

When you reach the seventh iteration of an annualized sub-franchise — we’re talking about Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 here — it would probably take a lot to surprise players. Well, Treyarch is giving it one heck of a try with this year’s Call of Duty, which is full of hallucinogenic sci-fi weirdness and a replayable campaign that looks like it borrows a lot from the Zombies side of Call of Duty and maybe even from Bungie’s Destiny games.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, out Nov. 14 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X (sorry, no Switch 2 version yet), will feature the three major pillars of Treyarch’s Black Ops franchise. There will be a story-based campaign that can be played solo or with up to four players; a suite of competitive multiplayer modes; and the return of Zombies mode, “crazier” and “more expansive” than ever, developers say. Black Ops 7 will push the franchise further into the future, with “cutting-edge 2035 combat,” promises Miles Leslie, associate creative director at Treyarch.

Fans of FromSoftware's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice are in for a treat, as an official anime adaptation of the 2019 game is in the works. Announced during Gamescom 2025 and produced by ARCH, Sekiro: No Defeat will directly adapt the story from the game with fully hand-drawn art. The anime series will be streamed exclusively on Crunchyroll.

"As an action animator, my core philosophy is to return to the basics. Sword combat with Japanese swords is inherently rigorous, and I want to depict that reality without flinching — capturing the weight of each strike, the body, and life itself," said Kenichi Kutsuna, director of Sekiro: No Defeat. "By embracing the hand-drawn essence of 2D animation, we can achieve a transcendent beauty in action that goes beyond cool to something deeply poignant."

The Deadpool VR game turned up during Gamescom 2025's Opening Night Live, and while developer Twisted Pixel didn't show too much from the upcoming superhero game, there was one pretty big piece of news: actor and comedian John Leguizamo (Ice Age, Encanto, John Wick) will provide the voice of Deadpool's nemesis, Mojo.

Mojo wants to make a reality TV show, so he recruits Deadpool to rope in the best of the best. "The merc with a mouth just signed a brand new contract with Mojo, the biggest name in intergalactic streaming," the game's official description reads. "There’s just one problem: he didn’t read the fine print. Because come on, who does that? Now, he’s off to “recruit” (aka kidnap) some of the toughest villains in the Marvel Universe."

The Wasteland beckons, with Fallout season 2 set to arrive sometime in December this year. We’ve been eagerly anticipating a trailer for months, and thanks to Gamescom's Opening Night Live, we have our first look at the action coming to season 2 of the Prime Video series.

And we also have a release date: Fallout season 2 drops Dec. 17.

Publisher and remaster developer Paradox Interactive announced the upcoming release of Surviving Mars: Relaunched, an updated and expanded edition of 2018's award-winning sci-fi city builder, Surviving Mars. Haemimont Games, the studio behind the original title, brings together the colony management game alongside its entire catalog of DLC, from expansions to cosmetic additions, radio stations, and an all-new Martian Assembly update.

The Lords of the Fallen series is set to continue next year. At Gamescom Tuesday, developer Hexworks revealed Lord of the Fallen 2, a sequel to the 2023 Soulslike Lords of the Fallen. It's expected to launch sometime in 2026.

Lords of the Fallen 2 is a standalone sequel to 2023's Lords of the Fallen, which shares its name with the 2014 action RPG from Deck13 (yeah, it's confusing). It's a Soulslike with unforgiving combat set in an equally unforgiving world. Lords of the Fallen 2 takes place 100 years after its predecessor, making it narratively accessible for those who haven't played the 2023 Soulslike yet.

We're getting a new Batman game, but not the way you think. On Tuesday at Gamescom, Warner Bros. Games and TT Games announced Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight — a new Lego Batman game, and the hero's first solo Lego title for consoles in over a decade.

The upcoming Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight will feature a Lego-ized Gotham for players to explore. Expect the gameplay to take a page from the Batman Arkham series. During the Gamescom presentation, gameplay footage showed Lego Batman sliding between enemies with a flurry of attacks as well as stealthily defeating them from above.

Bubsy the Bobcat, star of the eponymous, oft-derided Bubsy series of hit-or-miss platforming games, is back in a new adventure called Bubsy 4D. Publisher Atari and developer Fabraz, known for the Demon Turf and Slime-San series of platformers, revealed Bubsy 4D on Tuesday during the Gamescom Opening Night Live pre-show.

The new Bubsy is a self-aware and faithful follow-up to the franchise, which debuted in 1993 with Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind for Sega Genesis and Super NES. Bubsy 4D seems highly aware of Bubsy's standing in the mascot-platformer space; it both acknowledges the bobcat's rocky past and makes numerous references to Bubsy's peers. But it's also very clearly not trying to ape the Super Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog games. Bubsy 4D instead appears to be building on the foundation of Bubsy 3D, meaning the action is primarily focused on traversal, with a variety of ways to jump and glide through the game's playground-like levels. Bubsy can also go into Hairball Mode, which transforms him into a spherical puff of orange fur and lets him roll at high speeds like a Super Monkey Ball character.

Announced at Gamescom's Opening Night Live, Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes dares to ask: What would happen if the Cylons — a race of cybernetic sentient beings who have turned on their human creators — won in their attack against humanity?

Published by Dotemu (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge) and developed by indie studio Alt Shift (Crying Suns) in collaboration with Universal Products & Experiences, this new tactical, story-driven game with roguelite elements leans into Battlestar Galactica's theme of escaping an overwhelming enemy. Because what other choice do you have?

If you enjoy tricorne hats and a whole lot of stabbing, it's your lucky day. During today's Gamescom Opening Night Live presentation, Ghostrunner developer One More Level revealed Valor Mortis, its upcoming first-person Soulslike set in 19th-century Eastern Europe.

Set in a creepy alt-history version of Napoleon's conquest, Valor Mortis plops you into the boots of William, a soldier of the Grande Armée brought back to life from his battlefield grave. And, as to be expected in any good 19th-century alt-history, there's a supernatural plague afoot. At the root of all the trouble is a mysterious substance known as Nephtoglobin, which grants William otherworldly powers but also transforms his former allies into grotesque, shambling abominations. You've gotta take the salty with the sweet, I guess.

Developer Wargaming announced World of Tanks: Heat during Gamescom ONL, a new standalone spinoff from the popular free-to-play tank battler where you outfit your tank with customized weaponry and a special pilot before trundling into battle. The studio didn't share a release date for World of Tanks: Heat yet, but when the game does launch, it'll do so simultaneously for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X with full cross-progression. Wargaming also said it'll be Steam Deck compatible at launch.

In a news release, Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi called World of Tanks: Heat the studio's "bold vision for the franchise." Instead of piloting realistic tanks from the World War II era and beyond, you take charge of new "creative reinterpretations" of post-war designs and customize them with armor, weapons, visual mods, and other abilities inspired by technologies of the late 20th century.

Disco Elysium developer ZA/UM has finally given players a first look at its next title, a CRPG called Zero Parades. The game was unveiled via an official announcement trailer which aired during the Gamescom Opening Night Live 2025 showcase.

"Your friends are you," the game's trailer declares ominously. "Each a separate limb of the whole."

I have played and run a lot of White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade live-action role-playing and tabletop games. The best part of those games is getting to know the other characters — prying out their secrets and scheming with or against them to amass power and influence in the city. The worst part is the combat, which in every edition I’ve played has been a messy slog.

That divide is also true of the first chapters of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2, which will be released on Oct. 21, six years after the sequel to 2004’s cult hit Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines was announced. The game has had a deeply troubled development process. It was delayed indefinitely in 2021 after the writer of the original Bloodlines was fired and publisher Paradox Interactive parted ways with developer Hardsuit Labs. The Chinese Room (Dear Esther, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture) took over the project in 2023 with an entirely new plot focused on an elder vampire who has just awoken in modern-day Seattle.

Blizzard has properly unveiled World of Warcraft's 11th expansion, Midnight, during Gamescom Opening Night Live in its traditional fashion: with a typically gorgeous cinematic trailer.

The trailer sets WoW players up for a return to Quel'Thalas, home of the Blood Elves. Quel'Thalas first featured in the game's very first expansion The Burning Crusade, albeit as a Horde-only starting area and capital city, plus the Sunwell raid. Now the forces of the Void have invaded with the intention of capturing the Sunwell, a powerful font of magical energy. As Midnight draws near, Xal'atath’s ravenous void armies descend upon Silvermoon, threatening to envelop all of Azeroth in eternal darkness.

Gamescom’s Opening Night Live showcase is once again here to highlight games coming your way in the near future (and beyond). Hosted by Geoff Keighley, the creator of The Game Awards, the stream primarily focused on new or first looks at previously announced games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, Resident Evil Requiem, and Hollow Knight: Silksong.

But there were more than a few surprises at Gamescom ONL, including new game announcements and reveals like a fantastic-looking new Lego Batman game and the sequel to Black Myth: Wukong. Here’s a breakdown of the biggest trailers and announcements that were shown.

Wargaming showed off World of Tanks 2.0 at Gamescom Opening Night Live, complete with new tanks, a PvE event mode, and quite a lot more, and there's even a release date. The free World of Tanks 2.0 update goes live on Sep. 3 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Windows PC via Steam and the Wargaming Game Center.

"2.0 isn’t just an update - it’s a cornerstone of the game’s future evolution that will define World of Tanks development for years to come," Michael Broek, World of Tanks' publishing director, said in a press release. "We’re excited to share with our players the results of the team’s hard work over the past two years. Whether you’re new to the game, a seasoned veteran, or returning to the fight, with Update 2.0 there’s no better time to play World of Tanks."

Black Myth: Wukong was a certified hit last year, racking up 20 million copies sold in its first month. To close out Tuesday's showcase at Gamescom Opening Night Live, developer Game Science revealed it plans to follow up Wukong with a new entry in what it's calling its Black Myth series — Black Myth: Zhong Kui.

Zhong Kui "shares the same foundation of ancient Chinese myth and folklore," according to the game's FAQ page. It'll star Zhong Kui, the "ghost-catching god who wanders between Hell and Earth," as Gamescom Opening Night Live host Geoff Keighley put it.

As well as unveiling a cinematic trailer for the next World of Warcraft expansion, Midnight, at Gamescom, Blizzard has lifted the lid on some of the new gameplay features that will be included in the venerable MMO's 11th add-on when it's released in 2026.

The biggest of these is player housing, which Blizzard had previously announced and detailed, and which is available to try on the show floor. (Polygon will have a hands-on report for you soon.) But the most unexpected and intriguing aspect of Midnight is probably Prey.

In the world of Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000, Inquisitors are the feared secret police of the Imperium of Man, tasked with rooting out extraterrestrial threats and internal dissension. Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy, Owlcat Games’ adaptation of the Dark Heresy tabletop role-playing game, lets players step into the role, conveying the faction’s amorality and broad authority by letting you choose who to blame, no matter what the evidence says.

A hands-off demo at Gamescom picked up at the isometric role-playing game’s 15-hour mark, with the Inquisitor leading a five-person party investigating a series of disappearances on Scintilla, a planet in the Calixis Sector where the corrupting power of Chaos has already taken hold. You’re also seeking to unlock the larger mystery of the Tyrant Star, a mysterious planet-killing force from ancient times. Hope is lost for the people of Scintilla, but at least you can get some answers for the Imperium.

One of the most exciting things about the Switch 2 is that its souped-up power ostensibly means we'll get to play modern games on-the-go, but the improved specs don't guarantee stable ports. Case in point: Right now, reports hailing out of Gamescom say that Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition is shaping up poorly despite being scheduled to release sometime within the next few months.

Both IGN and Nintendo Life have gone hands-on with the portable version of FromSoftware's lauded open-world game, and their assessments aren't encouraging. Both publications report a host of technical issues, like frame rate drops, when Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition playing in handheld mode. It's apparently most noticeable whenever you move the camera around, which would theoretically often happen in an action game like Elden Ring. "Standing still, it looks great," IGN says. Nintendo Life adds that the game undergoes hiccups even when whatever is happening isn't particularly demanding, like depicting simple areas where there are only a few enemies walking about.

The Expanse novels by James S. A. Corey are set in a near future world where the decisions of politicians, corporations, detectives, and soldiers have big consequences for the fate of the Solar System. Likewise, your decisions in Owlcat Games’ The Expanse: Osiris Reborn can prove just as momentous. Case in point, you’re not going to get a warning before making a call that gets most of a space station killed. That's what I learned during an hour-long closed-door preview of the game at Gamescom, which was hands-off but did allow me to dictate certain choices.

Osiris Reborn takes place amidst the first two books in The Expanse series or the first two and a half seasons of the excellent Syfy/Prime Video TV series. You control a pair of identical twin mercenaries working for Pinkwater Security, who made the very unfortunate decision to visit the asteroid Eros when the corporation Protogen was conducting an experiment there involving an extraterrestrial material. The siblings escape by stealing a Protogen shuttle, bringing trouble back to the Pinkwater space station.

Gloomy streets, loads of unsavory folk, and most importantly: rain. I'm in Gotham all right. Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, developed by TT Games and published by Warner Bros, is an open-world adventure game telling the story of the Caped Crusader from beginning to end, thereby leaning on action sequences, tricky puzzles, and — you know it — silly jokes.

In terms of blocky designs and top-notch animation quality, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight was exactly what I expected when I played the demo for roughly 45 minutes at a hands-on preview event at Gamescom. Less expected, at least for me, was the action sequence I found myself in the midst of.

Vibrant planets, a non-stop bullet storm, and psychopathic guns are a given in the sequel to Squanch Games’ first-person action-adventure game High on Life. But I didn’t expect to spend 90% of my time on a skateboard when I started the 45-minute gameplay demo of High on Life 2 at Gamescom. Not that I mind it, though.

Remember what a – no offense – uncool human you were in the original High on Life game? Your planet got invaded by aliens, you didn’t understand the first thing about intergalactic civilization, and you used your silly old legs to move around. In High on Life 2, you’ve finally become awesome – as in "famous skateboarding bounty hunter" awesome. Your life should’ve been smooth skating from here, but alas, an incident involving your sister puts you on the wrong side of intergalactic law.

Capcom already has a packed 2026, with at least three major sequels — Resident Evil Requiem, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and Monster Hunter Stories 3 — set to overshadow its long-in-development Pragmata, something brand-new from the company. But fans of action games should keep a close eye on Capcom’s sci-fi shooter, which brings some intriguing twists to the third-person shooter formula.

Polygon played Pragmata earlier this summer, and executive editor Matt Patches already delivered a glowing preview of the game. He called Pragmata “a blast” (accurate) and said its “fluid, frictionless demo offered a combat-forward third-person shooter experience that felt totally fresh.” I got to play a slightly extended version of that demo, which Capcom is showing at Gamescom this week, and while it all but confirmed Pragmata was definitely not a secret Mega Man game, it certainly left me wanting more.

Planet of Lana 2: Children of the Leaf took me high up snowy mountains and deep into underwater trenches — but environmental diversity isn't the only reason why the sequel to Wishfully Studios’ 2023 puzzle-platformer promises a lot of range. During a 45-minute hands-on demo at Gamescom, I got a glimpse of a deeper narrative and a set of puzzle mechanics far more complex than the original game.

At the start of the first game, Lana’s planet is overrun by robotic abductors who swiftly clear her village of all its inhabitants, leaving Lana as the sole escapee. Luckily, Lana soon meets an adorable cat-like friend called Mui, and together they run tirelessly towards the right side of the screen in an attempt to save Lana’s family and friends, crossing serene forests, dark caves, and barren wastelands along the way.

John Carpenter’s Toxic Commando is a wild ride, often literally. In a closed-door preview at Gamescom, in which I got to play the upcoming co-op shooter with three other people for an hour, I got run over by a truck, hauled off by a hulking monster, and driven around a monster-infested map while shooting at our pursuers. We barely survived the swarms of zombies converging at our position in the final moments of the level, and the sweet victory left me eager to play more.

Toxic Commando is meant to embody the over-the-top feel of late ‘80s and early ‘90s action movies, and developer Saber Interactive worked with Carpenter, the legendary director of They Live, Escape from New York, and The Thing, on the game’s story. It’s set in a near future where an experiment meant to harness the power of the Earth’s core unleashes an eldritch entity known as the Sludge God. You play a group of mercenaries who have to save the planet from oozing undead monsters with a wide variety of weaponry.

Distinct factions, zero-to-hero character progression, and nights so dark you’ll trip over every rock or skull-headed bird you come across; I can see why Gothic is called a “cult classic”.

Although I’ve never set foot in the famous Valley of the Mines in the original Gothic — it was released in 2001, after all — knowing that it formed the inspiration for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, one of my all-time favorite games, makes me more than a little curious about the upcoming Gothic Remake.

Darkness, desolation, and… Oh shoot, an overgrown, doll-like freak just bit my head off. Reanimal, a horror game developed by Tarsier Studios, the creators of the first two Little Nightmares games, is not without jump scares.

Reanimal, announced at Gamescom 2024, is a third-person co-op horror game in which you take on the role of an orphan brother and sister as they try to escape from an island populated by monsters. Following a (mostly) linear narrative, you'll watch the story unfold through a dynamic camera angle. I love a good co-op puzzle game that forces me to laugh, scream, and get stumped by puzzles, so I was thrilled to play a 30-minute Reanimal demo at Gamescom. Although Reanimal can also be played solo (with an AI companion), I’ve only tested the game in co-op mode together with another invitee to this hands-on preview.

World of Warcraft has been the dominant MMORPG for 20 years, but it’s just now catching up with competitors like Ultima Online and Final Fantasy 14 in one big way: housing. The feature will be introduced in the upcoming Midnight expansion, releasing in 2026. I got a chance to play around with it during a hands-on public demo on the floor at Gamescom, and while Blizzard has made it very easy to customize your home, I was left with a lot of questions about how housing will actually be integrated into the wider game.

Blizzard set up an enormous stage at Gamescom for streaming presentations along with a zone packed with computers where fans could play with housing for about 20 minutes. The demo started with a taped presentation about the new feature played in a little model house. The video explained that Blizzard looked to both cozy games and survival games when developing World of Warcraft's housing feature, and that they sought to appeal to a wide audience by offering both basic and advanced modes.

I've got to admit, when I heard about an “open-world, third-person adventure game set in 13th-century Mongolia,” my mind instantly went to Genghis Khan and military conquests, but there’s none of that in Windstorm: The Legend of Khiimori. Instead of people, the only living beings that will attack you in this game are wild animals.

I love a grand historical adventure, but without violent conflict, I wondered, would it make an interesting game? After speaking with the developers from Aesir Interactive at Gamescom, and trying a hands-on 30-minute demo for myself, this unusual premise started to make perfect sense.