Opening Night Live kicks off the Gamescom festivities tomorrow, and there are five games I want to see above all else. The Gamescom 2026 schedule is already packed with goodies – Konami confirmed in a news bulletin that Silent Hill Townfall will be getting a new trailer during ONL, as will upcoming Xbox games like Gears of War: E-Day. But there are plenty of other new games on the horizon, including many upcoming PS5 games, that still have question marks over them.
I've put my sleuthing cap on and searched high and low to suss out what other new games might show face at the event. Some of the predictions below are based on deduction – be it the attendance of a high-profile developer, a publisher's presence at the convention itself, or being a 2026 release with no fixed launch date – while others are more of a hunch. I've been right before, so who's saying it can't happen again? Here are my top five predictions for Gamescom Opening Night Live 2026!
1. Fable 4 delay
I was already sour about Fable being delayed to 2027, so I already assume we will getan eyeful of it at Gamescom 2026 to sweeten the pot a little bit. But after reading our Editor-In-Chief's argument for why Playground should delay Fable again, I'm having second thoughts. Fable's new release date places it in one of the busiest months of the 2027 gaming calendar year, alongside dozens of other games that got shunted back to create a bit of breathing space around GTA 6's impending launch this November.
It really would be a shame to lose such a gorgeous RPG reboot amid all the other goodies primed to release around it, and I can see Xbox deciding to nudge Fable back just a few months by appeasing us with a juicy new release date trailer at Opening Night Live. We've waited this long to return to Albion. What's a few weeks more?
2. A new Witcher 4 teaser (after Witcher 3 expansion)
It's well known by now that developer CD Projekt Red will be giving us a first look at Songs of the Past, an upcoming Witcher 3 expansion, at Opening Night Live this year. But what of the series' next chapter?
Ciri's adventure will continue in The Witcher 4 in a few short years, with some lengthy trailers and State of Unreal tech demo revealing some incredible artistic tools being experimented with by the devs. We've seen precious little of CDPR's latest since the June 2025 tech demo and trailer reveal at The Game Awards 2024, and I, for one, am hankering for more. I don't expect we'll see too much of it before Songs of the Past launches in 2027 – the fact that CD Projekt and Fool's Theory are giving us an expansion for a 15 year-old game tells me we're in for a long wait for Witcher 4 in general – but I would love to see even a tasty teaser following up the expansion's confirmed reveal at Gamescom 2026.
3. Resident Evil Veronica release date
I know, I know – I'm a broken record when it comes to this series. Not only am I pining to see more of the Resident Evil Requiem story DLC we've been promised for months now, I'm patiently awaiting a firmer release date for my top upcoming horror game of 2027.
As a remake of my favorite non-mainline RE game, Resident Evil Veronica has had my full attention since its reveal at Summer Game Fest earlier this year. I hadn't expected much more news on the project before the next Requiem DLC drops, but as reported on X by a trusted insider, the game's lead producer will be traveling to Cologne for Gamescom. The next Resident Evil remake is not among the Capcom games that have been confirmed to show at the convention itself, so why would Yoshiaki Hirabayashi fly all the way from Japan just to watch ONL in person? I have my Resi-shaped tin foil hat firmly back on, folks, and am officially manifesting a Resident Evil Veronica release date reveal at Gamescom 2026.
4. OD (or any Hideo Kojima game)
Anyone who follows Gamescom and The Game Awards will likely know of host Geoff Keighley's iconic friendship with Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima, but it takes a real fan to be invested in them as the unofficial "husbands" of modern gaming. The duo seemed to playfully "make up" in posts shared on X and Instagram after fans had a collective meltdown over Kojima's absence from Summer Game Fest this year – so does this mean Kojima Productions is coming to Gamescom?
Nothing has been confirmed yet, but given the pair's lasting friendship and Kojima Productions' track record of appearing in lengthy showcase segments, it could happen. Kojima is hard at work on two games right now: OD, an Xbox-exclusive horror game, and cinematic stealth-action Physint. Neither have confirmed release dates yet, but with Kojima's latest social media posts showing that he's been chilling with best buddy Keighley in London as of August 19, maybe he's sticking around Europe to jet across to Germany for Gamescom after all? Stranger things have definitely happened, so watch this space – Kojima Productions at ONL 2026 could be a-go.
5. Persona 6 gameplay reveal
Atlus will be putting the spotlight on Persona 4 Revival at Gamescom this year, with a special showing during the planned Xbox @ Gamescom showcase on AUgust 26. But that doesn't mean all hopes of a glance at the next mainline entry are completely off the table when it comes to Opening Night Live. We were treated to a very small glimpse of Persona 6's black-and-green aesthetic at Summer Game Fest 2026, enough to slake the combined thirst of some of my biggest Persona-head colleagues… For the time being. Our Games Editor, Oscar, was right on the money when he put it on our Wildcard Wishlist for SGF, if you want even more proof of how accurate our predictions can be!
That said, I know Persona 6 is not a super likely contender for an ONL moment. The publisher has kindly asked fans to manage their expectations until Persona 4 Revival launches in 2027, after all. But much like my spidey sense tingles over the possibility of a The Witcher 4 teaser after a confirmed Witcher 3 showing, a part of me is hoping for just a tiny bit more from Persona 6 than a color palette confirmation – and Gamescom is the perfect opportunity to deliver it.
