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The future of gaming is here! Join us as we explore the 20 most hyped video games slated for a 2026 release. This list covers every genre, featuring everything from a new Resident Evil and a James Bond adventure to the mysterious Crimson Desert and Pragmata.
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00:002025 has been one hell of a year for great video games already, defined by the likes of Claire
00:05Obscure, Expedition 33, Split Fiction, Death Stranding 2, Donkey Kong Bonanza, and Hollow
00:11Knight Silksong, and that's just naming a few. But fortunately for us, if you're a fan of great
00:17video games, it seems like 2026 has already shown resoundingly clear that it is not to be upstaged
00:24by 2025. In fact, it very well may even top the incredible slate of games we've had this year.
00:30Even beyond the big one that just about everybody and their mother will be playing come next May,
00:35of course GTA 6, the entire year is packed to the gills with fantastic looking games that span
00:41pretty much every genre. From long awaited franchise sequels to entirely new IP, you'll want to keep
00:47your eyes on these ones. I'm Jess from WhatCulture and here are the 20 most anticipated video games
00:53of 2026. Resident Evil Requiem. Capcom's follow-up to Resident Evil Village is due out on February 27
01:01of next year. It introduces players to a new protagonist, FBI agent Grace Ashcroft, the daughter
01:08of Alyssa Ashcroft, who was a playable character in 2003's Resident Evil Outbreak. Grace will
01:15investigate a host of deaths at Raccoon City's Renwood Hotel, where her mother died years prior.
01:21Here, she'll find herself pursued by a relentless, terrifying stalker, not unlike Mr. X or Lady
01:27Dimitrescu from earlier Resi games. The big gameplay change-up this time, however, is that players will
01:33be able to freely swap between first- and third-person perspectives, rather than being forced to play in
01:39first-person as in the two previous games. There's still a lot we don't know about Requiem,
01:44but the tease of being able to explore a post-apocalyptic Raccoon City and rumours about
01:49Leon Kennedy being a second playable character definitely has kept fans talking. Considering
01:55how successfully the franchise has been revitalised since Resident Evil 7, it's pretty easy to have
02:00full faith in Capcom here, so we're absolutely looking forward to that one. 007 First Light
02:05To keep 007 fans busy until the Denis Villeneuve-directed next Bond film comes out, there's 007 First Light,
02:13due out March 27 of next year. This one's a new origin story for the legendary Super Spy,
02:19and it's coming from Hitman developers IO Interactive. Entirely divorced from any cinematic
02:24iteration of James Bond that we've seen before, what we're dealing with here is a 26-year-old James
02:30Bond, who's yet to become the iconic 007, and is in fact dealing with one of his earlier MI6 missions
02:37that's due to get him 00 status. Irish actor Patrick Gibson has been cast in the role of Bond,
02:43and while IO has stated the game will offer an updated depiction of Bond, you can still expect
02:49to see most of his usual Bond hallmarks. Namely, gear up for gadgets galore, awesome cars, globe-trotting
02:57action, and supporting appearances from the likes of M, Q, and Ms. Moneypenny. The gameplay will offer
03:02up a mix of Hitman-esque stealth with gunplay and car chases, all of which will be wrapped up in
03:08a
03:08glossy cinematic bow. IO also has plans for it to launch a trilogy of James Bond games, so here's
03:14hoping that comes to pass.
03:15Crimson Desert
03:16Crimson Desert, due out on March 19, was originally conceived as a prequel to the hugely popular MMORPG
03:24Black Desert Online, but developer Pearl Abyss ultimately decided to transition it to a standalone
03:30single-player RPG that just so happens to exist within the same universe. Crimson Desert takes
03:36place on the vast continent of Pywell, where mercenary protagonist Cliff attempts to rebuild
03:41his fallen fellowship known as the Greymanes and reclaim his homeland from those who've taken it.
03:47Now it's super hard for a game to stand out in a genre this crowded, but Crimson Desert looks pretty
03:52darn interesting. In large part, this is due to the densely packed, beautiful open world,
03:58as well as the dynamic combat, and there seems to be a bunch of different traversal options.
04:02In the vein of Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, players are free to climb pretty much
04:06anywhere that they can see, and if that's not good enough, you can't also just hop on a dragon
04:12and fly there. While it is arriving with considerably less hype than a lot of the games on this list,
04:17don't be surprised if this one ends up being a sleeper hit for 2026.
04:21The Dusk Bloods
04:22When Nintendo fully revealed the Nintendo Switch 2 back in April, they shocked the world by also
04:28announcing that FromSoft and director Hidetaka Miyazaki were developing a new action RPG exclusive
04:34to the platform. What further distinguishes The Dusk Bloods, however, is that it is a multiplayer game
04:40that supports up to eight players, each of whom chooses a vampire-like character to partake in both
04:46PvP and PvE combat. Considering it's rocking the same Victorian-era gothic-type aesthetic,
04:53when the trailer for this one initially dropped, a lot of people mistook it for Bloodborne 2,
04:57which left a lot of people kind of disappointed, but hopefully this one will make them feel good
05:03when it finally comes out, if they have a Switch 2. The Spiritual Successor label for this one
05:08definitely fits then, even if the multiplayer aspect seems to follow in the footsteps of the
05:13studio's more recent Elden Ring Night Reign. Miyazaki has assured fans, though, that FromSoftware
05:19has not abandoned their single-player roots, and we shouldn't expect an explicit multiplayer focus
05:24in all of the studio's future titles. Needless to say, if this one ends up being anywhere near as
05:30good as it looks like it really could be, a lot of people might be buying Switch 2 consoles next
05:35year.
05:35Pokemon Champions
05:36If Pokemon Legends ZA somehow isn't enough to keep you busy for the foreseeable future,
05:43next year there's going to be Pokemon Champions, a PvP-centric turn-based strategy game with a
05:48focus on competitive multiplayer Pokemon battles. The gameplay of this one has been likened to the
05:53Pokemon Stadium games, and seeing as I am a person who somehow didn't play any mainline Pokemon game
05:59but I love Pokemon Stadium, that is music to my ears. It's also going to be compatible with Pokemon
06:05Home and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, while also offering cross-platform play across Switch consoles
06:11and mobile devices. Given that Champions will replace Scarlet and Violet at next year's Pokemon
06:17World Championships, the Pokemon company is definitely going all-in on this one, and fully expects it to
06:23be a global phenomenon. Considering it is a free-to-start game, with a more content-rich paid
06:28version also being released, there's definitely huge potential for Champions to blow up in a massive
06:34way outside of the usual Pokemon fandom. Now of course that does also mean we need to cross our
06:40fingers hoping that the free version of the game is not paid for by a bunch of microtransaction
06:46slot that's going to destroy it if you don't have the paid version. So, again, fingers crossed,
06:51hopefully Nintendo get it right. Directive 8020
06:54Directive 8020 is the latest entry into Supermassive Games' Dark Pictures Anthology franchise.
07:01Though the series' first four games released annually, this will mark the first release in the
07:06anthology since 2022's The Devil in Me. This new installment is a sci-fi horror romp in which a
07:12colony ship crash lands on a planet where the surviving crew find themselves facing a shape-shifting
07:18alien threat. Lashana Lynch will be starring as astronaut and pilot Brianna Young, though of course,
07:25like previous Dark Pictures games, players will get to switch between five different characters
07:29throughout the cinematic story. While Directive 8020 mostly follows the formula you'd expect from
07:34other Dark Pictures games if you've played any of them, this one does introduce some new mechanics,
07:40namely real-time combat and stealth as well as an inventory system. But perhaps the most interesting
07:45new feature is the Turning Points system, which allows players to rewind gameplay to experiment with
07:51alternate paths, and it'll also be the first game in the series to include online co-op.
07:57Fable
07:58The upcoming Fable reboot will be the first new mainline entry in the long-running franchise since
08:03Fable 3 came out in 2010, so to say a lot of people have been waiting on this one would
08:09be an
08:09understatement. Following the cancellation of co-op game Fable Legends in 2016, Microsoft announced a
08:16new single-player narrative title in 2020, which was being developed by Forza Horizon's Playground Games.
08:22Though this new game still transpires in the land of Albion, Playground intends to update the
08:28series' aesthetics and gameplay for modern tastes, alongside putting in a whole new story. While
08:33the specifics of the narrative and our protagonist are still very much unknown at this point, we do
08:39know that British actor-comedians Richard Ayoade and Matt King will be playing a supporting villain
08:44and mentor, respectively. The visuals and gameplay definitely look spectacular from what we've seen
08:49so far, so hopefully this is going to be a case where Playground is able to lovingly revive a series
08:55that's definitely been on ice for way too long. Pragmata
08:59Though Capcom's new sci-fi action-adventure game Pragmata was first announced in 2020,
09:05years of delays and periods of radio silence led a lot of people to believe it had been quietly
09:10cancelled. Thankfully, reports of its death were greatly exaggerated as Capcom reintroduced the game
09:15this past summer, and it was even playable at Summer Games Fest. Pragmata takes place on a lunar
09:21research station, where stranded astronaut Hugh teams up with an android, Diana, to escape back to
09:27Earth while fending off the hostile AI robots which populate the station. What's fascinating about Pragmata
09:33is that players will be able to control Hugh and Diana at the same time. You'll need to complete puzzles
09:39as Diana to hack each robot's armour, all while dodging attacks as Hugh, then finally using Hugh to shoot the
09:47robot once Diana has hacked them. It certainly does look like a breath of fresh air for the surrogate
09:52parent action game subgenre, and even if it's only half as good as it looks, expect a bunch of other
09:59games to try and clone what this one's doing in the years to come.
10:02Nioh 3
10:03Perhaps a few years later than fans were hoping for, Team Ninja is back with the third entry into
10:09their beloved tough-as-nails action RPG franchise, Nioh. Players will take control of a samurai called
10:16Tokugawa Takechio, as he battles supernatural entities and ascends to the role of Shogun,
10:22all while coming into conflict with his corrupted brother. Nioh 3's story will see Takechio venture
10:28across Japan, transcend time, and meet figures from the nation's rich history, and it's also going to be
10:35shaking up the core gameplay in a few meaningful ways in the process. For one, the threequel will
10:40introduce a more accessible ninja playstyle alongside the traditional samurai one, with an emphasis on
10:46evasion and both aerial and ranged attacks. Beyond this, Nioh 3 will also be less linear than previous games in
10:53the franchise, with more wide-open spaces for players to explore. While these changes likely won't please
10:59every Nioh fan, especially the Die Hard set, they may well open up the franchise to a wider player
11:04base, which is not necessarily a bad thing. High on Life 2
11:102022's kooky sci-fi shooter High on Life definitely wasn't for everybody, but its irreverent Rick and
11:16Morty-inspired tone nevertheless made it a breakout hit on both Steam and Xbox Game Pass. A sequel was
11:23unexpectedly announced this past summer, and now that game will be coming out on February 13 of 2026.
11:29We'll yet again see the bounty hunter protagonist setting out to keep his sister safe after a
11:34bounty is put on her head. Granted, the plot is expected to be relatively inconsequential,
11:40much like its predecessor, where it largely served as a vehicle for wacky humour and medium
11:45parodying set pieces. Rick and Morty's Justin Roiland won't be involved this time around after
11:51domestic violence charges were filed against him, but from what little we've seen so far,
11:56it does seem to retain that same off-the-wall tone and vibrant aesthetic of the predecessor.
12:01That said, naturally High on Life 2 is really unlikely to be a hit with people that weren't
12:07a fan at all of the first game, but if you did like that one and enjoyed its humour,
12:12this one could well be for you as well.
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