Author: Game Infliction

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.

2025 was somewhat of a quiet year for PlayStation. Yes, we got the Game of the Year-nominated Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, and Sucker Punch’s exciting sequel to Ghost of Tsushima, Ghost of Yotei. But aside from that, there wasn’t really a lot of activity from Sony’s first-party studios. Instead, you had to look to developers outside of Sony’s stables, who thankfully kept the PS5 ticking over with an array of interesting games. Right at the back end of 2024, Infold launched the console-exclusive Infinity Nikki and has been delighting stylists around the globe over the past 12 months, and smaller projects such as Sword of the Sea, Dispatch, and Baby Steps have all been enjoyed on PlayStation 5.

Of course, the fact that there were not many console exclusives didn’t mean there weren’t a whole host of great games to play on our PS5s last year. Quite the opposite, in fact. Awards-sweeper Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong, and acclaimed RPG Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 led the third-party offerings. Plus, 2025 really was the year of Xbox going fully multiplatform with its library, as Forza Horizon 5, Gears of War Reloaded, and The Outer Worlds 2, to name just a few, all made their way to PlayStation. And that’s showing no signs of slowing down in the coming year, either, with a certain Master Chief set to grace a Sony console for the first time.

The truth is, Sony has just been pretty quiet when it comes to exclusives of its own, with little new to shout about from a hardware perspective, either. And that’s before we even get into the problems Bungie (now a PlayStation Studio, remember) has faced with Marathon. So, are things looking more exciting in 2026? Well, Marathon will certainly be hoping so as it aims to combat PlayStation’s recent live-service travails. Let’s dig into it, as well as everything else to expect from Sony this year.

First-Party and Exclusives

Heading into 2026, all eyes are on Logan, as Insomniac aims to bolster its long winning streak of Ratchet and Clank and Spider-Man games by taking on another comic book hero. Marvel’s Wolverine is currently pencilled in for a “late 2026” launch, although we’ll see if those plans change at all due to a certain Rockstar game moving to a similar timeframe. Whenever it does release, though, we look to be in for a treat if our first look at gameplay during September’s State of Play is any indication.

While much is still yet to be revealed about its story, we’re eager to learn more and see just who else from the X-Men and the wider Marvel Universe will be popping into Logan’s world. Mystique and Omega Red have already been confirmed, but surely Sabretooth is a must, as well as a cameo at the very least from either of Insomniac’s Spideys, Peter Parker or Miles Morales. Which of the X-Men do you want to see most?

As for PS5 exclusives that actually have release dates confirmed, there’s only Saros, Nioh 3, and Phantom Blade Zero. The former is Housemarque’s follow-up to the acclaimed Returnal, and looks to be sitting in a similar mould of colourful, particle-filled, challenging shooter within an alien planet shell. Now arriving on April 30 after a slight delay, it will take players on an expedition to a lost colony as we step into the shoes of Rahul Kohli’s Arjun Devraj and kill and die our way to uncovering its mysteries through its repeating, roguelike structure.

Nioh 3 is a console exclusive for PlayStation, as it’s also arriving on PC when it launches on February 6. A chronological sequel to the events of the series’ first game, Team Ninja is back with a fresh dose of its own brand of punishing soulslike action in feudal Japan. Things are being shaken up this time, though, thanks to the introduction of a “ninja playstyle” which promises to control completely differently from the traditional samurai option. Trust a studio called Team Ninja, which is also responsible for the Ninja Gaiden series, to want to add ninjas to Nioh. That’s enough ninjas for one sentence, I think.

Phantom Blade Zero is a hotly anticipated wuxia action RPG coming from Chinese developer S-Game. The lead character is called Soul, so you can probably guess what genre this project also borrows heavily from, too. I can confirm this myself – after briefly going hands-on with it at gamescom 2025, I found that there is indeed a punishing combat system with a complex skillset to master. But there are other action game influences, too, so the combat tempo is much higher than in your typical Soulslike. Up for some punishment? Well, you’ll have to hold on a little longer yet, as Phantom Blade Zero will be released on September 9.

Now onto the stuff we’re led to believe will be coming in 2026, we just don’t know when yet. First up is Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, the new superhero fighting game from Guilty Gear developer Arc System Works. A uniquely stylised interpretation of the Marvel universe, it looks set to be a real contender in the fighting game community if its recent closed betas are anything to go by.

Freshly revealed at The Game Awards, 4:Loop is a new co-op shooter from Left 4 Dead creator Mike Booth and Bad Robot Games, the video game wing of film director J.J. Abrams’ production company. A PS5 and PC exclusive, it seems to infuse some roguelike elements with a sprinkling of Helldivers and Left 4 Dead. No release date has been given yet, but playtesting will start soon.

Then we have Marathon, the new extraction shooter from Destiny developer Bungie, which was initially meant to arrive in 2025, but had a rough year to say the least. Delayed into this year and now coming out in March, the studio will be hoping for a big comeback story this year and buck the trend of recently failed Sony live-service shooter offerings such as Concord. Instead, it’ll be looking to the likes of the wildly successful Arc Raiders and PlayStation’s very own Helldivers 2 for a template to follow. Shooter pedigree doesn’t come much stronger than Bungie, so fingers crossed that it can turn around those initial impressions.

Speaking of live-service shooters, Fairgames is reportedly still in development at Haven Studios despite the departure of its founder, Jade Raymond, in May of 2025, and even more recently, the game’s creative director, Daniel Drapeau, leaving in September. With still no gameplay to be seen and no sign of a release date for this “competitive heist shooter”, serious questions now have to be raised about whether it will ever see the light of day.

Laser swords more your cup of tea? Well, Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet might be the one for you. We’re very much dreaming if we think this is coming any earlier than 2027, but hopefully, we get a good look at gameplay for Naughty Dog’s new sci-fi game over the next 12 months. Expectations are high from one of Sony’s most beloved developers, though, with creator Neil Druckmann calling it the “most ambitious game” they’ve ever made.

But what about all of those other PlayStation studios cooking up exclusives? Well, Guerrilla may not be developing the recently revealed mobile MMORPG Horizon: Steel Frontiers itself, but has been recruiting for its own multiplayer entry into Aloy’s universe. Could we see that in 2026? What about Santa Monica’s next project? Is it finally time to see what Cory Barlog’s mystery game is, if a new God of War isn’t imminent? All good questions. None of which I have the answers for.

I could run through each of the remaining Sony studios here, but, truthfully, I did that back in August, and very little has changed since. So, you can read that here.

Third-Party and Multiplatform

Another look forward to the year ahead in games, and another opportunity for me to say how excited I am for GTA 6. Surely, after its most recent delay to November, 2026 is the year we finally get our hands on the latest Grand Theft Auto. Please, Rockstar, don’t do it to us again.

Our loss is a bunch of games’ gain, though, with Spring opening up wide for a fair few to fill that GTA-shaped void. These include Capcom’s latest entry into its legendary horror series, Resident Evil Requiem and IO Interactive’s first non-Hitman project in a long time, James Bond adventure, 007 First Light. Plus, Pearl Abyss’ expansive open-world action of Crimson Desert will be soaring onto consoles and PC in March as well. Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is looking to pick up where Rocksteady’s Arkham trilogy left off and infuse its satisfying melee combat with that indelible minifig charm when it launches on May 29.

But so much of 2026 remains uncertain — likely largely due to GTA shifting around more than James Brown did on stage in the ‘70s. Let’s start with some multiplatform games we are pretty confident are coming this year, before moving on to ones that will likely remain rooted in our dreams.

Yes, Master Chief will soon be controlled by a DualSense. Halo: Campaign Evolved is heading to the PS5 in 2026 as Microsoft continues to unleash its library onto other platforms. This Unreal Engine 5 remake of the 2001 Xbox classic could prove the spectre at the feast for Bungie, the original developers of Halo: Combat Evolved, if its own Marathon launch doesn’t go as planned. At least it won’t be competing in the multiplayer market, as this new edition of Halo only includes the story campaign.

Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra recently shifted out of its original window of early 2026 to “beyond early 2026”, so your guess is as good as mine as to when we’ll be playing Amy Hennig’s Captain America and Black Panther in World War 2 story. Legendary PlayStation hero Lara Croft will be returning in a “reimagining” of her original game, titled Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, and Finnish developer Remedy is back with another entry in its connected universe, Control: Resonant. Also announced at The Game Awards was the pleasantly surprising Star Wars: Galactic Racer from the makers of Burnout and Need For Speed that is scheduled to drop in 2026.

Capcom is also set for a big year outside of Resident Evil, with Onimusha: Way of the Sword and Pragmata both set to hit. As was the way in 2025, 2026 also looks set to keep you happy if you’re a fan of katanas and unnerving robots. As it will for vampire fans too, with The Blood of Dawnwalker looking really promising thanks to a non-linear narrative and sandbox-like structure, crafted by a team led by former Witcher 3 devs. Then there’s Mixtape, a game I’ve added to this list as one of my personally most anticipated of 2026. The sophomore project from The Artful Escape studio Beethoven & Dinosaur, this 80s-inspired coming-of-age adventure is definitely one to keep on your radar.

Is 2026 finally the year we get to play a new Ken Levine game? The Bioshock creator hasn’t given us one since 2013’s Infinite, and Judas has been in development for a long time now. Let’s hope this is the year, because it’s something I need in my life. As is The Witcher 4, but even I’m not foolish enough to believe that CD Projekt Red’s Ciri-led RPG is coming anytime soon. But feel free to surprise me. I’d love that.

Hardware and Tech

We’re not necessarily expecting any big hardware splashes this year, with the next console generations theoretically not due until late 2027 at the earliest. Sony tech wizard — and most importantly, creator of Knack — Mark Cerny did recently discuss new graphics capabilities in a conversation with AMD, which sparked PlayStation 6 speculation into overdrive, but it’s still likely a couple of years away at least.

Rumours are also abound of a new PlayStation handheld, after suggestions were made over the past summer that Sony could even be following Nintendo’s blueprint for the Switch, and turning the PS6 into a hybrid home and portable console. Of course, this is all just wild speculation, but with powerful hardware only reducing in size and cloud capabilities ever-growing, it doesn’t feel like too much of a stretch to imagine. As I said, though, we’re still quite a way off hearing anything concrete in regards to the future of PlayStation hardware.

And that’s everything we know, along with a few guesses thrown in, about what to expect from PlayStation in 2026. What games are you most excited for this year? Let us know in the comments below.

Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.

The Pokémon franchise has begun its 30th anniversary celebrations with the reveal of a special new logo, an animation featuring Fat Pikachu, and the promise of more to share in less than two months’ time.

2026 is the 30th anniversary of Pokémon, which began its path to world domination with the Japanese launch of Pokémon Red and Pokémon Green back on the Game Boy three decades ago. (The series then arrived in the USA two years’ later, launching with Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue.)

As the clock ticked over to January 1, 2026 in Pokémon’s home region of Japan, the brand began its celebrations with the reveal of a new 30th Anniversary Pokémon logo featuring Pikachu, introduced by none other than Fat Pikachu — the mascot’s far plumper original design that’s now rarely glimpsed in official Pokémon media. Here he is in action:

ポケモン30周年、はじまる！
『ポケットモンスター 赤・緑』の発売から30年。
2026年2月27日（金）にポケモンは30周年を迎えるよ。
今年は最高の1年になる予感！
お楽しみに！#ポケモン30周年 pic.twitter.com/iPXR83Ib66

— ポケモン公式 (@Pokemon_cojp) December 31, 2025

“Pokémon 30th Anniversary, Here We Go!” the brand wrote in a post on social media. “30 years since the release of Pokémon Red and Green. On February 27, 2026 (Friday), Pokémon turns 30. We have a feeling this year is going to be the best one yet! Look forward to it!”

Expectations for this year’s celebrations are sky high, following last year’s so-called Teraleak of Pokémon game development data that spilled various details of the franchise’s highly-anticipated 10th generation of games. Alongside a fresh roster of new creatures, fans expect these titles to feature new gameplay mechanics and procedurally-generated areas for the first time.

2026 will also see the launch of promising-looking Pokémon life simulation spin-off Pokémon Pokopia, which arrives exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2 on March 5. A blend of Pokémon characters with gameplay more similar to Animal Crossing, the game seems likely to find success.

More details on all of that are expected to arrive on the brand’s big 30th anniversary, now less than two months’ away on February 27. While not formally confirmed just yet, this date has now become the annual date fans expect to sit down and watch a new Pokémon Presents, the company’s Nintendo Direct-style announcements showcase. There’s not long to go now.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social