GamesCom 2025 and Opening Night Live

After another year of waiting, GamesCom 2025 is finally here and kicks off with a lot of awesome game announcements during GamesCom ONL (Opening Night Live). New titles, reimagined games, DLCs as well as expansions and new versions. Whether you are waiting for The Outer Worlds 2, Age of Empire IV DLC, The next Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 or World of Warcraft: Midnight, ONL had hype-worthy reveals for everyone, within every genre covered.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7

The next in a long line of shooting, sliding and farming camos for all your weapons, Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 comes out later this year on November 14th, 2025. Embracing the madness, Mason is back for the most innovative campaign in the history of Call of Duty: Black Ops. Returning, as expected, Round-Based Zombies and a massive offering for Multiplayer and Warzone. The next game by Treyarch and Raven will also feature Raul Menendez, another fan favorite character.

World of Warcraft: Midnight

After over 20 years of Raiding, PvPing and running dungeons, World of Warcraft, the once most popular game, is still going strong with several million monthly players. The 2nd part of the World Soul Saga, World of Warcraft: Midnight, which is the 12th game (or 11th expansion) is coming out somewhere in 2026 and is expecting to bring numerous changes, most of which have already been announced. From Player-Owned Housing, to new talents. Launch will be including three new raids (9 bosses total) and four zones (two recreated and two new). Read our World of Warcraft Midnight Expansion article for more information or news about the next WoW installment.

Crimson Desert

First announced in 2019, Crimson Desert has been a long awaited game for a lot of potential players. Coming from the Black Desert team, a story driven adventure sounded almost too good to be true, and for many years, it seemed like this would never happen as announcements and news was scarce. However, during Opening Night Live, of GamesCom 2025, we finaly got some amazing news about a release date. And the Crimson Desert Steam Store is already confirming this as well. The game will be coming out in the first quarter of 2026!

Enshrouded: Wake of Water

Coming out mere days after Palworld, one of the (by far) best games of 2024 got covered by the 'Pokemon with Guns' hype. Although Enshrouded was a drastically better game, with more content on release and has received a tenfold more content updates since, the problematic release date made sure that most people never even heard of this game. Luckily, the high speed of, community requested features and fixes the devs brought out over the last year and a half has clearly made a big change to the popularity of the game. Enshrouded is getting a major update with Wake of Water, which had its trailer debut on GamesCom 2025, Opening Night Live, and this already increased the total player count again. If you do not have the game yet, you should certainly consider buying it from the Enshrouded Steam Store and get the hang of the game already, before the Enshrouded: Wake of Water update drops in October 2025.

Anno 117: Pax Romana

Another game being added to the Anno franchise by Ubisoft, just announced is Anno 117: Pax Romana. Pax Romana, meaning 'Roman Peace' in Latin was a prolonmged period of peace, stability and economic prosperity for the Roman Empire, around the same time as this game is set into. Already coming out this year, at November 13th, the newest Anno game will force you to balance Roman ingenuity and Celtic traditions. Will you force the barbaric Celtic people to adjust to your Roman ways, or will you honor their traditions and let their gods help you out as well?

Valor Mortis

The gaming scene is currently not able to get enough of souls-like RPG games and Valor Mortis is no different. A recently, during GamesCom Opening Night Live 2025, announced title with a more horror-esque taste to it. Valor Mortis does not have an exact release date yet, but you can already wishlist Valor Mortis on Steam, so that you will get an update when one of Napoleon's soldiers with supernatural powers, is ready to uncover a humanity-threatening conspiracy and fight horrifying monsters.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword

Onimusha has been a Capcom game since its first release, Onimusha: Warlords in 2001 for the Playstation 2. Nearing ten releases already, fans know exactly what to expect from the new Onimusha: Way of the Sword, which is scheduled to come out somewhere in 2026. If you are one of these fans, you should certainly go to the Onimusha: Way of the Sword Steam Store to wishlist it already. And maybe brush up on your Onimusha lore, if you are a player that likes it for more than swords and fighting!

Lords of the Fallen 2

Back in October 2023, Lords of the Fallen had a spectacular release with over a million copies sold on steam. Clearly the devs realized, that this dark and twisted RPG had a bright future and started working on Lords of the Fallen 2. Also making its announcement debut on GamesCom 2025, Opening Night Live, Lords of the Fallen 2 is promised to be darker and more sinister than its first installment. Sadly, it does not have a steam page yet, but is said to be releasing in 2026 as well. In the meantime, go and replay the first Lords of the Fallen on Steam in preparation for the next one!

Age of Empires IV: Dynasties of the East

In 2021, after more than 15 years, Age of Empires finally got a new game with the release of Age of Empires IV. For a lot of nostalgic players, this was a must-buy and the game has sold almost three million copies on steam alone. Over the next few years, more civilizations were added and a lot of new features were created. Last year, the Ages series got a remake of the god-centric version with Age of Mythologies: Retold. This year, during GamesCom Opening Night Live, the next DLC for Age of Empires IV was announced, scheduled to come out on November 4th, 2025. Even better, until its release date there is a 15% off promotion for pre-purchasing Age of Empires IV: Dynasties of the East on the Steam Store. Adding four new civilizations in the form of a variants to already existing civilizations for the Mongols (The Golden Horde), the Byzantines (Macedonian), the Japanese (Sengoku) and the Delhi Sultanate (Tughlaq Dynasty), the game will certainly see an influx of returning and new players again!

Europa Universalis V

In between Civilization, Age of Empires and Risk, the game franchise of Europa Universalis has been a popular and well-known strategy game, loved by many. This year on Opening Night Live of GamesCom, the announcement for Europa Universalis V was a true hype for fans of the series. Already able to pre-order and with a known release date of November 4th, 2025, the third quarter of 2025 is certainly starting to look like a very full one. Long, sleepless nights of playing a new Europa Universalis, might seem like a bad idea for non-gamers, but for fans, it's the good life!

The Outer Worlds 2

Obsidian Entertainment, which already brought out Avowed earlier this year, is coming with another big game in the form of The Outer Worlds 2 on October 29th, 2025. Unless, of course, you decide that advanced access, to play 5 days earlier is worth it to Pre-Order The Outer Worlds 2 on Steam. In either case, the second installment is meant to be a true sequel to Obsidian Entertainment's award winning first-person sci-fi RPG.

Too much to play

If you are an MMO or an RPG lover. Souls-like or top down strategy fan. 2026 and the rest of 2025 will bring something for everyone. Depending on how you see it, we either have too much to play, or not enough time to enjoy all great games. One thing is certain, some of these games will be great to play, while binge-watching a series on a second screen. Maybe Fallout Season 2? You know, since that was also announced on GamesCom Opening Night Live. Either way, go loot your wallet or save up in preparation of these great games and let's do what we do best: Loot hoarding and spending way too much time searching for hidden secrets that do not turn out to be there.