Very few things in life are certain, especially in today’s climate. Never fear, because your faithful friends at WellPlayed are here to inject some rock-solid reliability into the year ahead of us. Not knowing what’s to come can be daunting, so our team of experts came together to share certified spoilers about the video game industry to ease your overwhelmed minds. While we have the cheat sheet for every announcement, reveal, and revelation to come in 2026, we wanted to leave some surprises on the table for you to discover for yourself, but rest easy knowing that these concrete facts are immoveable, unshakeable, and downright true… from a certain point of view.
I don’t know why you would, but if you need proof of our predictive prowess, you need look no further than our exceptionally accurate(ish) callouts for 2025. You can even listen to us discuss how right(ish) we were on the WellPlayed DLC Podcast.
So, without further delay, come with us as we work through what some would incorrectly label as predictions for the gaming year ahead. Some are fun and exciting, others are slightly less so, but all come backed with a 100% guarantee*. Here are WellPlayed’s gaming predictions for 2026:
Adam
- A US developer will announce a modern combat game that positions the right-wing US government as the antagonistic force. The president and his party will move to halt the studio’s development, sparking fierce debate over censorship and artistic freedom
- PlayStation will announce a new handheld with a similar form factor to the PlayStation Portal. Mark Cerny will hammer home the importance of PSSR and confirm that the entire PS5 library can be played natively on the device
- A free-to-play, battle royale-style Mr Beast game will be released, promising a huge prize to the one and only winner. It will be riddled with AI assets, and it’ll generate heaps of negative media buzz while breaking concurrent player records
- Netflix’s purchase of Warner Bros. will effectively end the company’s video game production. The Nemesis System will stay locked away until 2036
- The Steam Frame will be a modest success. Rather than pushing the VR platform further, it will begin widespread adoption of second-screen wearables (example: X-Real glasses)
- The Switch 2 won’t see a Call of Duty release in 2026, raising eyebrows over Microsoft’s Activision agreements
- Marathon will find a player base and enjoy moderate success. Arc Raiders will remain the biggest extraction shooter on the market
- Half-Life 3 will release in 2026, and it will somehow live up to the lofty expectations
Ash
- A major gaming company will properly establish itself as the first truly anti-AI brand. It will market itself as people-first, hang some shit on AI as a feature of modern technologies, and reflect that in its price. It will not be Razer
- Blizzard will reintroduce a long-dead IP. StarCraft. But it won’t be in the RTS genre, because even Blizzard can’t shock that back to life. The new game will be a third-person shooter, talent or leadership from the Gears of War team will be utilised to develop it
- Discord will finally get around to shitting the bed. The public listing will happen, and people will take cover in the trenches, but nothing will happen. Only then will Discord drop some hot garbage in the form of AI moderation, AI emojis, and AI recaps of chat channels. It will muddy the waters of social interaction, leading TeamSpeak to step up and make my first prediction come true
Zach
- Far Cry 7 will be announced and released in 2026. It will be the most critically acclaimed Far Cry title since Far Cry 3
- GTA VI will break street date by at least 5 days, sending Twitch streams into a frenzy and putting the site out of action for days
- The Day Before will return, run by modders attempting to revive the game
- Sniper Ghost Warrior 4 will be announced
- At least one major game awards ceremony will feature a best AI-generated game or AI-generated art award
- Every single game published by Xbox will release on PlayStation and score higher than it did on Xbox
- During one of his rants, after trying to start a war with another country, Donald Trump will say that this event would make a great premise for a Call of Duty campaign
Nathan
- Fred Durst will appear in a live service game. A coward would predict that game to be Fortnite, but I’m going to say he appears in Battlefield 6
- A new Zelda game will be announced, and it will somehow be attached to the new film
- None of the big three (Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft) will release a new console in 2026. That includes any Pro, Slim, OLED, or portable models
- Wizards of the Coast will announce another attempt at a Magic: The Gathering action game
- Geoff Keighley will hype an announcement at one of his showcases, talking about the power and possibilities that come with AI, only for the trailer to reveal what is clearly just AI slop
- A new studio will reveal its debut game, with an actor’s voice and likeness being used for the player character. That actor will be Elle Fanning
Jade G
- GTA VI will get hit with another delay
- We will finally hear something about The Wolf Among Us 2
- AdHoc Studio will announce Dispatch Season 2
- Sledding Game releases and performs super well
- New Legend of Zelda-related content will be announced for the series’s 40th anniversary
- Another Witcher 4 trailer will be released
- Devil May Cry 3 will get a remake or remaster announcement
What do you mean, some of our watertight visions of the future contradict each other? Don’t worry about that, just worry about telling your friends about these sage nuggets of wisdom and watch them drop their jaws in amazement as each one of these tidbits comes true.
Which of our predictions would you like to see happen? What are some of your predictions for 2025? Let us know in the comments or on our social media.
*100% guarantee is not guaranteed, and is to be seen as more of a guideline. Actually, it’s more like a suggestion. Ok, these are predictions. Fine.
