Rest easy, videogame trailer-lovers: this year’s Gamescom announcements from Opening Night Live 2022 are here to keep you fed.
The week formerly known as E3 has come and gone and The Game Awards show isn’t until December, but we can’t go too long without Geoff Keighley introducing a world premiere, so let there be Gamescom.
The games festival is back on as an in-person event in Cologne, Germany, this year and we’ll be sharing our hands-on impressions of games in attendance throughout the week. While you wait for that, here are the announcements that were fired off on opening night.
We’ve grouped some of the biggest games and announcements here at the top if you just want the highlights. Down below, you’ll find everything else that turned up for Opening Night Live, small trailers and incremental announcements and all. Here are all the Gamescom announcements for 2022.
Biggest Opening Night Live announcements
The Callisto Protocol
What’s new: New gameplay showcase with a mutating enemy type that will regrow body parts as you fight if you don’t kill them quick enough.
Release date: December 2, 2022.
Sonic Frontiers
What’s new: A new gameplay trailer that leads with some classic-looking Sonic ‘evels in its open world.
Release date: November 8, 2022.
Hogwarts Legacy
What’s new: A story trailer focused on a Slytherin student and preorder date announcement for August 25.
Release date: February 10, 2023.
Gotham Knights
What’s new: A villain lineup that includes Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, and Clayface.
Release date: October 21, 2022. (Four days earlier than expected!)
Dune Awakening
What is it: An open-world survival MMO in the Dune universe.
What’s new: A reveal trailer. Beta signups (opens in new tab) are open.
Dead Island 2
What’s new: An actual gameplay trailer, developer interview, and release date.
Release date: February 3, 2023.
Everything else announced at Gamescom
Everywhere
What is it: A metaverse-sounding game coming in 2023.
What’s new: Initial reveal with a debut teaser trailer (opens in new tab).
PlayStation Dualsense Edge
What is it: Sony’s version of an Elite controller with customizable parts.
What’s new: First announcement and trailer (opens in new tab).
The Lords of the Fallen
What is it: The new name for Lords of the Fallen 2, sequel to a not very good soulslike.
What’s new: The name, and a cinematic trailer (opens in new tab).
Moving Out 2
What is it: Sequel to the co-op party game.
What’s new: A gameplay trailer (opens in new tab) and 2023 launch window.
New Tales from the Borderlands
What is it: A Telltale-style followup to the game everyone loved, but by Gearbox.
What’s new: A new story trailer (opens in new tab) and October 21, 2022, launch date.
Dying Light 2: Bloody Ties
What is it: DLC for Dying Light 2.
What’s new: Reveal trailer (opens in new tab) featuring the Carnage Hall arena.
Tortuga: A Pirate’s Tale
What is it: A turn-based strategy pirating game.
What’s new: Reveal trailer (opens in new tab).
Marauders
What is it: A multiplayer FPS set in the alternate 1990’s.
What’s new: A new trailer (opens in new tab) and early access launch in October 2022.
Destiny 2: Lightfall
What is it: The next Destiny expansion.
What’s new: A reveal trailer (opens in new tab) and February 28, 2023 launch date.
Under the Waves
What is it: An underwater narrative adventure published by Quantic Dream.
What’s new: First reveal trailer (opens in new tab) and 2023 release window.
Goat Simulator 3
What is it: The deliberately misnumbered sequel to Goat Simulator.
What’s new: A new gameplay trailer (opens in new tab) with the slapstick physics you’d expect.
Return to Monkey Island
What is it: A sequel to the classic adventure game.
What’s new: September 19, 2022 release date and a pre-order horse armor joke (but it is real).
Moonbreaker
What is it: A turn-based sci-fi strategy game with paintable digital miniatures in the Unknown Worlds setting, collaborating with author Brandon Sanderson.
What’s new: New gameplay trailer (opens in new tab) and Early Access date of September 29, 2022.
Friends vs Friends
What is it: A competitive card game and FPS published by Devolver Digital.
What’s new: A gameplay trailer (opens in new tab).
Lies of P
What is it: Bloodborne, but it’s about Pinocchio.
What’s new: New gameplay trailer (opens in new tab), also coming to Xbox Game Pass at launch.
Stranded: Alien Dawn
What is it: A strategy survival sim on another planet.
What’s new: A gameplay trailer (opens in new tab) and Early Access coming in October 2022.
Atlas Fallen
What is it: A “semi open world” co-op or solo action RPG that looks a bit like Monster Hunter.
What’s new: A gameplay trailer (opens in new tab) and 2023 launch window.
Homeworld 3
What is it: An outer space RTS.
What’s new: A new gameplay trailer (opens in new tab), now coming in the first half of 2023.
Genshin Impact 3.0
What is it: A story trailer (opens in new tab) for the 3.0 launch.
What’s new: Nothing, really. But it does launch today.
Honkai Star Rail
What is it: The turn-based strategy RPG by Genshin Impact’s developers.
What’s new: A new trailer (opens in new tab) showing off that space train.
High on Life
What is it: An FPS from Rick & Morty’s Justin Roiland
What’s new: A first gameplay trailer (opens in new tab), and December 13 launch, and it will probably never shut up.
Hardspace Shipbreaker
What is it: A spaceship deconstruction game.
What’s new: September 20 console launch on PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S.
The Expanse: Telltale Series
What is it: A narrative game based on the TV show by the new Telltale studio.
What’s new: New trailer (opens in new tab) and summer 2023 launch window.
Killer Klowns From Outer Space
What is it: A competitive multiplayer horror game based on the ’80s movie.
What’s new: A new trailer (opens in new tab) and Early Access coming in 2023.
Scars Above
What is it: A third-person shooter on an alien planet.
What’s new: A reveal trailer (opens in new tab) with a bit of gameplay.
Wyrdsong
What is it: An RPG from a new studio Something Wicked Games including former Bethesda and BioWare developers.
What’s new: A teaser trailer (opens in new tab) that tells us well, mostly nothing, honestly.
Age of Empires 4
What is it: The already launched strategy game.
What’s new: New free civilizations the Malians and Ottomans, and October 25 anniversary update.
Where Winds Meet
What is it: An open-world action RPG with martial arts.
What’s new: A quite pretty reveal trailer (opens in new tab).
Hideo Kojima’s podcast Brain Structure
What is it: A “deep dive into his brain” related to the game development creative process, apparently also including sections from Geoff Keighley.
What’s new: It’s launching on Spotify (opens in new tab) on September 8 and will have an english translation.
Park Beyond
What is it: A park-building sim with big ol’ roller coasters.
What’s new: New trailer (opens in new tab) and a 2023 launch window.
MINI Aceman Electric concept car
What is it: A BMW electric car (opens in new tab) with “gaming features” and a Pokemon partnership.
What’s new: Cars for gamers, apparently.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
What is it: A Warhammer 40K co-op action shooter.
What’s new: A character creation and gameplay trailer (opens in new tab), though the November 30 launch date was known.
Blacktail
What is it: An action adventure and archery game about the origins of Slavic myth Baba Yaga.
What’s new: New trailer (opens in new tab) and December 15, 2022 launch date.
Phantom Hellcat
What is it: A third-person hack ‘n slash combo-chaining action game.
What’s new: First reveal trailer (opens in new tab).
CrossfireX
What is it: The Babylon update for the Xbox-exclusive FPS.
What’s new: New trailer (opens in new tab) and August 23 launch date.
Dorfromantik
What is it: The strategy puzzler about building towns.
What’s new: A new trailer (opens in new tab) announcing a Nintendo Switch launch on September 29.
The Outlast Trials
What is it: Outlast, but with up to four players online.
What’s new: A new trailer (opens in new tab) and closed beta announcement from October 28 – November 1.
The Finals
What is it: A destruction-heavy FPS from former Battlefield devs.
What’s new: A new trailer (opens in new tab) and playtests on Steam starting soon.