gamescom season in review, 10 August – 9 September 2026

gamescom in Cologne drew 368,000 visitors from 131 countries in its most international edition yet, and CD Projekt Red used the opening show to announce The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered. Chinese and Korean companies were unusually prominent in Cologne, and Sony and Nintendo followed with early-September broadcasts. Away from the trailers, a Singapore–Indonesia co-production entered early access, a Montreal studio bought back its independence from Microsoft and Unity shipped an official plugin for Claude Code.

This roundup covers 10 August to 9 September 2026. Each item links to the company, organiser or store page behind it; where we rely on a news report, we name the outlet. Future release dates are announced dates, not releases.

gamescom in Cologne

The most international gamescom yet

Organiser Koelnmesse’s closing report on the 26–30 August show counted 368,000 visitors from 131 countries, with international visitors up 6%. There were 1,743 exhibiting companies from 66 countries, 11% more than in 2025, and 72% of them came from outside Germany, the highest share yet. The show hosted 48 pavilions from 41 countries, and more than 36,000 trade visitors attended, about half from abroad. The organisers counted more than 624 million views of the digital programme, 78 million of them for Opening Night Live. gamescom 2027 is set for 23–29 August.

CD Projekt Red brings back The Witcher 3

On 25 August CD Projekt Red used Opening Night Live to announce The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered for 29 September. It is coming to PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, with a native Nintendo Switch 2 version, and is free for existing owners on qualifying platforms. The Polish studio also gave a first look at Songs of the Past, a paid expansion set in a new region called Letten and due in 2027.

Chinese publishers take a bigger share of the opening show

Opening Night Live began with Nodusfall, a new game from miHoYo, which publishes internationally as HoYoverse; no platforms or release date were given. In a 3 September analysis adapted from 36Kr, KrASIA counted 14 of the show’s more than 50 featured games as coming from Chinese companies, by one count the most in the event’s history. That is a media tally, not an organiser statistic. KrASIA also named NetEase’s Ananta, dated for 15 January 2027, and Tides of Annihilation from Chengdu-based Eclipse Glow Games, part of Tencent’s gamescom line-up. It argues that Chinese mythology, history and aesthetics are moving from decoration to the core of game design.

KRAFTON brings five unreleased games

KRAFTON’s Hall 9 booth showed five unreleased titles, according to an Edaily report on 30 August based on company information: an action FPS based on PUBG from PUBG Studios; NO LAW, an open-world FPS RPG with a shooting range for visitors; Project ZETA, a multi-team tactical arena shown through a stage battle; Age Twisters, a two-player co-op adventure; and TARAE: The Unbound, a quarter-view dark-fantasy action RPG. KRAFTON said some booth zones had waits of more than two hours, with the longest queue for Age Twisters.

Elsewhere in Asia

RIFTSTORM enters early access from a Singapore–Indonesia team

RIFTSTORM, a co-op PvE looter-shooter, entered Steam early access on 11 August. Its store page credits Singapore-based Confiction Labs and Indonesian studio Agate as developers, with Confiction Labs and Gamersky Games as publishers. Squads of characters called Weavers fight waves of enemies, collect weapons and try to extract. The developers expect early access to last about 18 to 24 months.

China’s August licence list grows

The NPPA’s August list of approved domestic online games, published on 31 August, contains 209 titles approved on 28 August, up from 193 in July. Familiar franchise names appear on it, including new entries in Tian Long Ba Bu (天龙八部) and Fanren Xiuxian Zhuan (凡人修仙传).

Sony and Nintendo fill the calendar

Sony aired a global State of Play and a separate State of Play Japan back to back on 3 September. Its Japanese PlayStation Blog recap covers more than 30 games. The next instalment of the Final Fantasy VII remake series (Japanese title: ファイナルファンタジーVII リベレーション) is dated for 8 April 2027 on PS5. Fate/EXTRA Record is dated for 28 January 2027 on PS5 and PS4, and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 3 is planned for 2027 on PS5.

Nintendo followed with a Direct on 9 September. Its official recap lists a new 3D Kirby adventure for Switch 2 “next spring” and a new game called Metroid Ravenous. It also confirms a Yo-kai Watch 2 remake in development, plus Monster Hunter Wilds with a new expansion and two Persona games coming to Switch 2. The same recap calls the next Final Fantasy VII instalment the remake series’ “thrilling conclusion”.

The Americas

Compulsion Games buys back its independence

Montreal’s Compulsion Games, maker of South of Midnight, completed a management buyout from Microsoft in August. CEO Guillaume Provost told GamesBeat in an interview published on 20 August that the deal had been done nine days earlier. GamesBeat reports that Compulsion was one of five studios Microsoft said in early July it would divest. The studio has regained the IP for its original games. Publishing has already moved over on Steam, while the console stores are still in transition. Provost did not disclose terms or headcount. “I did this deal for the team first and foremost,” he said.

Tools

Unity ships an official plugin for Claude Code

On 9 September Unity released an official plugin for Claude Code, Anthropic’s coding agent. It installs 29 skills “written by the Unity teams that own the feature”, covering areas from UI and 2D to rendering, audio, monetisation, multiplayer and localisation. A unity-cli skill drives Unity from the terminal, including a live Editor. Unity said Claude Code was the first coding agent to get the plugin and that other agents would follow later in the year.

Also covered

South Korea’s Busan Indie Connect Festival and Taiwan’s East Asia Indie Games Celebration are covered in our separate Asia Spotlight.

GameTales uses AI to help research and prepare articles. This article was drafted with Claude Code, the coding agent named in the Unity item above, and a human editor decides what we publish.