The highlights of Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026

What the report says

GamesIndustry.biz was at Gamescom Opening Night Live on Tuesday night, the eighth instalment of the digital showcase. The hall was packed, without an empty seat in sight, and there were plenty of gaming celebrities in attendance: Xbox head Asha Sharma could be seen near the front, gamely forming an 'X' with her arms as the camera panned over her.Geoff Keighley opened the show with a surprisingly heartfelt speech, where he explained that after last year's event he flew back home to be with his dying father, who passed away shortly afterwards. Keighley also acknowledged the industry's troubles, saying "it's no secret that the video game industry is changing and evolving," citing widespread layoffs coupled with hardware price rises caused by the AI components crisis.

"But in spite of all that, developers around the world are pushing forward to build new games," he said.The show's opening trailer started by flashing up the word Hoyoverse, eliciting excited gasps from those seated around us, perhaps reflecting the global reach of titles like Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail. The game was Nodusfall, a highly polished co-op action title with clear similarities to Capcom's Monster Hunter franchise, as players teamed up to take down dragon-like creatures.It was a sign of things to come, with a strong presence from Chinese and Korean companies in this year's Opening Night Live, which included titles like Cinder City and Like or Die from NC, PUBG: Ded.Net from Krafton, Ananta and Sea of Remnants from Netease, Zoopunk from Ti Games, and Tides of Annihilation from the Chengdu-based Eclipse Glow Games, not to mention another Hoyoverse title in the form of the life-simulation game Petit Planet.Director Naoki Hamaguchi came on stage to introduce Final Fantasy 7: Revelation, which is due in spring 2027 – and is notably launching on all platforms simultaneously, whereas the previous two games were timed PlayStation exclusives.We also saw on-stage appearances from Jon Bloch and Pavel Ulmer of 4A Games, who introduced the trailer for Metro 2039, which is due in February 2027.

"Creating a game this dark requires a lot of passion, discipline, and a development team that has become accustomed to working without peace or regularity," said Bloch, while Ulmer added that the development was "pretty rough, trust me"; the trailer began by flashing up the message "Proudly made in Ukraine".But the biggest hit of the night was undoubtedly The Witcher 3, which closed proceedings. The crowd erupted at news that the game is being remastered with a raft of improvements, from improved combat to ray tracing, and that the remastered version is being given away as a free upgrade for all owners of the original game on September 29.

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Not only that, the game's previous two expansions are being given away for free to owners of the base game, ahead of the launch of the third expansion, Songs of the Past, in 2027. Level design lead Miles Tost came on stage to say CD Projekt Red had wanted to do "one more story" with Geralt for a while, and a brief look at the upcoming expansion showed Geralt with a new chain weapon.Elsewhere in the show, Wizards of the Coast showcased the space adventure Exodus, due on April 7, 2027, as well as providing a lengthy gameplay trailer for the Dungeons & Dragons title Warlock, also due next year, but with no fixed date.Other highlights included trailers for Exterminauts from Behaviour Interactive and Level Infinite, which looks like a more light-hearted take on Helldivers 2; the new city builder Lego Skylines, which is being published by Paradox Interactive; and Ontos from Frictional Games and Kepler, which was billed as a spiritual successor to Soma.

We also saw a trailer for 1001 Threads of Mizan, the first game from MBC Game Studio, which is funded by the Saudi Arabian broadcast company MBC.The absurd trailer for Showa American Story, featuring the game's protagonist assaulting foes with an American flag and an arm-mounted drill, garnered a smattering of applause from the crowd, indicating 4Divinity might be on to something with its strategy of focusing on kooky AA titles. Stage Tour from RedOctane, meanwhile, generated bona fide whoops, indicating that the return of rhythm action guitar games is long overdue.On the subject of blasts from the past, the audience got a first look at Sega's Crazy Taxi World Tour, while Turok: Origins, developed by Saber Interactive, was confirmed to be coming in spring 2027.