Gamescom 2025 preview: The 6 games we're most excited to see

Europe's biggest gaming convention is imminent: The Gamescom 2025 festivities will commence on Tuesday, August 19 with Geoff Keighley's usual Opening Night Live, which will be followed by the Future Games Show and Xbox and Bethesda streams throughout the week. (See our Gamescom 2025 schedule for more on when and where to watch all the happenings.)

Not everything that'll be at the show has been revealed at this point, but we do know a lot of what'll be there. Here are the top six games we're looking forward to seeing at Gamescom, plus a list of other reveals to expect.

#6 The Outer Worlds 2

Obsidian is just spoiling us this year: first Avowed, then Grounded 2 in early access, and now a closer look at The Outer Worlds 2, which is due out in October. Microsoft says its "theater presentation" will introduce us to one of the dystopian locations from the corpo-controlled future of the sequel, "an opulent facility where history, loyalty, and propaganda intertwine." Sounds kinda like Microsoft, actually.

Hopefully we'll also see some more wild weapons, like the gun that shoots drones that pop up and distract your enemies with advertisements. Which also sounds like Microsoft. —Christopher Livingston, Senior Editor

#5 Onimusha: Way of the Sword

Onimusha was the best thing I saw at Summer Game Fest in June, but unfortunately, it was a hands-off, behind-closed doors demo that Capcom still hasn't released online. Well, Gamescom would be a good time to fix that. In a time when every other action game is a soulslike, Onimusha stands out as a more focused, animation-heavy combat system all about the sword. Its group combat, wide camera angle, and omnidirectional block reminded me of Ghost of Tsushima. —Morgan Park, Staff Writer

#4 Silent Hill F

Spending years as a starved and bitter Silent Hill fan has me convinced a Konami executive will come crawling out of the fog to yell "sike!" at any moment, but the good news keeps coming.

Silent Hill F will be at Gamescom this year with a new trailer planned for Opening Night Live, the last big event before the game launches in September. I'm not sure I dig the action focus, but it's checking too many of my hyper-specific interest boxes to ignore, like the all-in pivot to Japanese horror and work from the Spirit Hunter artist Kera and Higurashi When They Cry creator Ryukishi07. —Andrea Shearon, Evergreen Writer

#3 World of Warcraft: Midnight

Everyone loves a Blizzard cinematic and we're going to get a new one all about World of Warcraft's next expansion, Midnight.

Aside from story stuff, the reveal will probably hint at some things that have been teased for a while, like the destruction (and rebuilding) of major cities from 2007's The Burning Crusade, and the long-awaited introduction of player housing. Most of this will be explained after in a separate video, but I expect the cinematic will very intentionally target people like me who were around for WoW's first few expansions and can be easily swayed by showing off a bunch of nostalgic, familiar things. —Tyler Colp, Contributor

#2 Resident Evil Requiem

Look for more on the next Resident Evil during Opening Night Live on Tuesday, as Geoff Keighley has promised "an exclusive new look" at the sequel, which'll take us back to Raccoon City as FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft, and offers both first and third-person perspectives.

Capcom's flagship horror series has had its misfires (RE6), but even its least liked entries have defenders (RE6 was fine), and it's been on a solid run. We awarded Resident Evil 7 a 90%, Resident Evil Village an 85%, and the recent Resident Evil 4 remake an 80%. —Tyler Wilde, US Editor-in-Chief

#1 Hollow Knight: Silksong

Silksong, also known as the game that drove PC Gamer's Harvey Randall quite mad, is going to be playable at Gamescom at both the Nintendo and Xbox booths. And according to Team Cherry, the Hollow Knight sequel that's been in development since 2018 will finally release before the end of 2025. Which means the actual, for-real-this-time release date has to be announced at this year's Opening Night Live event, right? Surely Geoff Keighley's going to give a little smug smile and say "I know you've been waiting for this one" before rolling the trailer for the game that will shake the heavens. I believe this with my whole heart.

Now if you'll excuse me, my friend Lucy's been patiently holding a football that I need to go kick. —Wes Fenlon, Senior Editor

More games we expect to see at Gamescom

• Borderlands 4: We previewed Gearbox's latest vault hunt a few months ago—it seems alright!—and it'll be playable again at Gamescom.
• Ninja Gaiden 4: Wes recently played this one, but as much as he's on board with the year of the ninja, it didn't blow him away.
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7: We'll get our first real look at this year's CoD, which will have stiffer competition than usual.
• Pragmata: We weren't sure this one would ever come out, but Pragmata is real, says Capcom. We should see more of it at Gamescom ahead of its 2026 release.
• Where Winds Meet: We recently described this game as "Genshin Impact with way better combat."
• Little Nightmares 3: Supermassive Games has taken over development for this sequel, and has added two-player co-op—though it hasn't changed as much as you might think.
• Lords of the Fallen sequel: The reveal of a sequel to the 2023 Lords of the Fallen has been teased for Opening Night Live.
• Cronos: The New Dawn: A new horror game from Bloober Team, which earned a lot of cred with its Silent Hill 2 remake.