Nintendo is getting rid of another way to save money on Switch games
The launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 doesn't mean Nintendo has immediately given up on the original Switch console, as evidenced by plans to keep releasing games for it into 2026.
That said, there have been signs that it's gradually becoming less of a priority. Obviously, the Switch 2's the only place you can play new exclusives like Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza, as well as retro GameCube games.
Ahead of the Switch 2's launch, Nintendo also updated its Switch Game Vouchers to ensure they couldn't be spent on Switch 2 games and now the company plans to get rid of them altogether.
As a reminder, Switch Game Vouchers are an exclusive offer for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers and essentially let you purchase any two games from this list at a slight discount of £84.
These have been available since May 2019, but Nintendo has announced plans to discontinue the vouchers starting from the end of January 30, 2026.
This doesn't mean any you have left will immediately become useless. Vouchers typically don't expire for a year after purchase and that will remain the case even after they're removed from sale.
Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning.
So, even if you buy a pair of vouchers on January 30, 2026, you'll still have until January 30, 2027 to use them.
After January 30th, 2026, #NintendoSwitch Game Vouchers will no longer be sold. Any Game Vouchers bought will remain valid for 12 months after purchase. Switch titles will continue to be added to the Game Voucher catalogue throughout 2026.More info: https://t.co/IKXcmMwWW0 — Nintendo UK (@NintendoUK) July 10, 2025
Surprisingly, in its website update announcing all this, Nintendo says that it still intends to add more games to the list of examples you can purchase with game vouchers.
Presumably, this will only last for another year and a half, since by the end of January 2027 any remaining vouchers will have expired and thus the scheme will be well and truly dead.
This all comes after Nintendo also put an end to its Gold Points reward scheme in March, which served as another means of saving money on new Switch game purchases. More Trending
At the time, it was theorised that this was a sign that Nintendo would establish a new rewards scheme for the Switch 2 era, which feels more likely now that the vouchers are on their way out as well.
Nintendo hasn't officially acknowledged this though. In fact, much like the Gold Points, it hasn't given any explanation for why it's discontinuing the vouchers.
This could all simply be part of Nintendo's strategy to encourage Switch 1 owners into upgrading to the Switch 2, but Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser has previously acknowledged that some people simply can't afford to make the jump.
'That's why we wanted to make the other Switch platforms available, so [people] still have an opportunity to come into our gaming universe, be a part of these characters in these worlds, and see value, if you will, in whatever rung of the platform they come in,' he said.
Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter.
To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here.
For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.
MORE: Nintendo Switch 2 charity auction for 'Staplegate' stapler is already at £80,000
MORE: Switch 2 owner banned for playing second-hand Switch 1 games
MORE: Where to buy a Nintendo Switch 2 in the UK one month after launch
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Metro
4 hours ago
- Metro
Resident Evil Requiem will be Leon Kennedy's final game claims insider
Leon S. Kennedy will play a big role in the next Resident Evil according to an insider, and will also feature open world areas with a vehicle. Capcom officially unveiled Resident Evil Requiem at Summer Game Fest earlier this year, where they debuted a new protagonist in the form of FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft. While the developer has shared little else about the sequel, aside from the ability to switch between first and third person perspectives, rumours prior to the announcement claimed Leon S. Kennedy would feature in some capacity. Capcom has not officially said Leon will make an appearance (and even appeared to rule him out entirely), but a prominent insider has now gone one step further – claiming the upcoming sequel will represent a final bow for the character. Insider Dusk Golem, who is known for Resident Evil leaks, posted a series of tweets about Resident Evil Requiem on X. In these posts, he claims the next instalment 'is supposed to be Leon's last major role in the timeline'. 'Leon and Grace are the main protagonists of Resident Evil Requiem, yes,' they added. 'I am repeating myself a bit there, but will end up being the case. Both play big roles, but I think when all is said and done, this in many ways will come off more as Leon's send-off game.' Dusk Golem later clarified he doesn't know how Resident Evil Requiem will end, or Leon's fate, but rather the 'circumstance surrounding' his inclusion. 'Hell, I could see the end being Leon being all, 'I'm getting too old for this and have earned my retirement' after the events of Resident Evil 9,' they speculate. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Leon & Grace are the main protagonists of Resident Evil Requiem, yes. I am repeating myself a bit there, but will end up being the case. Both play big roles, but I think when all is said & done, this in many ways will come off more as Leon's send-off game. — AestheticGamer aka Dusk Golem (@AestheticGamer1) August 12, 2025 While it's worth taking this with a pinch of salt, timeline wise, it lines up with what we know about Resident Evil Requiem. The sequel is set 30 years after Raccoon City's destruction in Resident Evil 3. Leon first debuted in Resident Evil 2, which takes place at the same time, where he's 21 years-old. A 30-year time jump from these events would mean Leon, if he does appear, will be 51 years-old in Resident Evil Requiem. While not exactly retirement age, he's probably seen enough zombie shenanigans to warrant an early exit. There's already precedent for older versions of original characters popping up in Resident Evil. In the last mainline instalment, Resident Evil Village, original protagonist Chris Redfield shows up, where he's 48 years-old. Leon is four years younger than Chris, putting the latter potentially at 55 in the events of Resident Evil Requiem, so there's a chance the next game could represent a retirement of the old guard across the board. Outside of Chris, the last time the bulk of the main cast appeared in a mainline title was 2012's Resident Evil 6. Jill Valentine was rumoured to be part of early plans for Resident Evil 9 but Dusk Golem makes no mention of her playing a role in Requiem. There's also no mention of teenager Rose Winters, which the ending of Village implied would play an active part in future games. Although those plans may also have changed over time. Beyond the story, Dusk Golem has claimed there'll be several 'innovations' gameplay-wise in the next instalment. These include 'good performance on open level designed areas like Raccoon City', which will feature a 'vehicle to travel around it'. This wouldn't be entirely new for the series, as it sounds similar to the open area boat sequence in Resident Evil 5 and the Resident Evil 4 remake, although those were quite limited. 'The combat with Leon has seen huge innovations, honestly some Last Of Us Part 2-isms, but also its own innovations,' they added. On the remake side, Resident Evil Zero and Resident Evil: Code Veronica are expected to be the next titles due for a makeover. According to Dusk Golem, the former received 'some form of reboot in development' late last year, although it's unclear how significant the changes are. More Trending It's claimed these titles are scheduled to release in 2027 and 2028, but it's unclear which one will arrive first (he previously said it would be Zero). Beyond these titles, they claim the next 'big budget' Resident Evil game, which is not a remake or spin-off, will launch in 2029/2030. If you're simply after more information on Resident Evil Requiem, the same leaker states the title will be shown next at Gamescom Opening Night Live on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, before it makes an appearance at the Tokyo Game Show in September. Earlier this year, Capcom confirmed Resident Evil Requiem began life as an online open world game, but these plans were (thankfully) dropped. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: Every new video game for 2025 and 2026 from Sony, Nintendo and major publishers MORE: Second Battlefield 6 beta gives you an excuse to revisit with new map and modes MORE: Halo makes its PS5 debut this month but not how you would expect
Metro
14 hours ago
- Metro
Games Inbox: Is an Xbox Game Pass subscription worth it?
The Wednesday letters page has some detailed advice for anyone trying to build their own gaming PC, as one reader enjoys Fast Fusion on Switch 2. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ Too much of a good thing Back when I bought my Xbox Series X I got 24 months of Game Pass included. I tried a few games now and then, but mostly for 20 minutes or so, and then tried another and after a few months I didn't use it at all really. I think having so much choice actually made it feel cheapened, if that makes any sense. I think if I'd paid £40 for a game I'd feel more inclined to play it but Game Pass was like a buffet just to sample lots of games but not actually play them properly. I didn't renew it when my sub expired a couple of years ago now. Mark Matthews GC: It's a common sentiment, but not one anyone really anticipated before game subscriptions became a thing. Executive logic With the next generation of consoles just around the corner, and with the Switch 2 kind of starting it off, will developers be held back by the difficulties of getting their games to work on all consoles? We saw how the Xbox Series S complicated releases on both it and the Xbox Series X (Baldur's Gate 3). Will developers now have to think about the Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, and Switch 2 when making the next generations games? When new generations of consoles come out they usually make sure that their new games can be played on their older iterations of their systems. With development time and costs skyrocketing, I think the video games industry is in serious trouble, and I don't think kickstarting the next generation is the right answer. There's plenty of life left in the PlayStation 5 (and Xbox to a lesser extent) and it feels like the next generation is more trouble than its work. But then again what do I know? dan69247 Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. Life after death RE: the short life cycle of the beloved Dreamcast. Two years and four months from start to finish is very, very short. But suppose I don't dump a console once it's shut down, there are still plenty of games to seek out and play. I would suppose I had it for at least another two years after that, all while quietly having an affair with the GameCube. I gave it to my nephews when I finally left her for the GameCube full time and they still have it bundled away in the back of a cupboard somewhere, promising to show me that the apprentices have become the masters at Soul Blade/Edge/Calibur. I'll bet those LED Chao memory card Tamagotchis don't work though! big boy bent Email your comments to: gamecentral@ Do it yourself I never cease to be amazed at the amount of technical know-how and skill you can happen upon after just a cursory search on YouTube. If you have a problem, any kind of problem, chances are someone's already made a how-to video about it. I've had a long-standing issue with my original Xbox, in that the DVD drive has been reluctant to open and close. It turns out this is a common problem that can be solved by fitting a new drive belt, which can be purchased easily online. These belts are so much smaller than you'd think. A spare Xbox DVD drive belt (I bought two) is no bigger than an American quarter (25 cents). Fitting the belt was a fiddly but non-invasive procedure akin to keyhole surgery using tweezers, but I saw how to do it on a YouTube video. Last night I watched some guy revive an old non-working Xbox that he'd bought. Apparently, the capacitor had leaked over the motherboard (another common problem with the original Xbox) and he expertly mended the console and got it working again. Impressive stuff. It's so gratifying when experts turn what might be considered worthless junk back into something useful. I guess the advice that you'd give to anyone with a malfunctioning console that's over two decades old is to get a professional to fix it and I believe retro console repair shops are scattered around the UK. I expect a lot of people would be inclined to buy another old console and commit their malfunctioning machine to landfill but I wanted to try and fix mine myself. Michael Veal / @msv858 (X) Bad timing I think Game Pass is a really good idea, the only problem is it came about 20 years too late. Just hear me out! 20 years ago games were so cheap to make. I mean, 20 years ago games were around £40, half the price to make compared to now. That means a shorter time to make them, which means they could of made more in the same time frame to be able to keep the list fresh. Also, now everyone has had enough of subscriptions. Not only have you got the video subscriptions online, everything is going on a subscription – even going to the gym. And I think everyone is saying not another subscription. But 20 odd years ago there wasn't any subscription services, which would of been perfect for Game Pass. So it's really a great idea, just a shame it was 20 years too late. David GC: 20 years ago, nobody downloaded AAA games, due to slower broadband speeds and limited hard drive space. Fast catch-up Just picked up Fast Fusion on Switch 2. Bought it mainly for the Switch 2 graphics showcase but the gameplay is rather good. I've jumped in just as the game has had a free update. The new additions are another graphics option and also three extra new circuits. Not bad for free DLC. I shall wait for more of that. GC, is there any point me buying the older games in the series or should I leave them alone? Is it going to be a big step backwards playing fast RMX? Nick The Greek GC: They're all just minor variations of each other, so we'd stick with Fusion. Even if the Fusion gimmick is one of the worst things about it. Under budget Regarding Andrew J.'s PC purchase, as others have said, you'll get a very capable machine for £2,000 if that's what you want to spend, easily capable of at least 1440p at 60fps in most games for many years to come. PCPartPicker has good user submitted build guidesif you want to get an idea of which CPUs and GPUs are within your budget, and r/buildapc subreddit is also good for advice. Generally speaking, I'd say an AMD CPU is probably your best bet unless you have a good reason to go with Intel: a 7800X3D (or 9800X3D, if you're willing to pay a wee bit more) would do you for years to come. On the GPU side it's worth getting something with 12GB VRAM minimum as the 8GB cards are struggling to keep up – a RTX 5070 or 5070Ti (if you can stretch to it) would also keep you going for a while, and gives you access to Nvidia's full feature set (upscaling, frame generation). If you're not too bothered about that, then the 9070XT is a really good AMD card which has better ray-tracing and machine learning powered upscaling capabilities than the previous generation cards (I have a 7800XT which is fine for my needs, but relatively rubbish for ray-tracing). This build (from the website you suggested) comes in around £2,000 and could be a good starting point: If you really just want a 1080p machine then you can lower your budget a lot , but you'll maybe need to upgrade sooner. I really like what Intel are doing in the budget GPU space – they have some nice cards with good VRAM capacity that would make great 1080p/1440p machines. Happy hunting! Magnumstache Skimping on power As others in the comments have mentioned, £2,000 to target 1080p at 60fps is overkill and could be achieved for less than half that price. Assuming you actually do want to spend £2,000 then I'd recommend a 7800X3D processor with ideally a 5070 Ti graphics card (Ti over the base 5070 for the extra VRAM), although if you need to shave £150 on your spend this could drop to the 5070. You could probably run many current games at 4K 60fps with this set-up. Ultimately, I would recommend getting in touch with whichever company you plan to use to build the PC and discuss the requirements in more detail with them. I just put a theoretical build through Parts Picker and it came in at £1,900 but there is no upcharge on parts for building it this way. Two suggestions, though. Firstly, add a second 2TB drive. You won't be running games off your old mechanical drive so having extra space now and being able to dump game installs on a separate drive to the operating system is worth the extra £100 at the build stage. Secondly, don't skimp on the power supply, I often see build sites using the cheapest PSU possible, so ensure you're getting a good rated one (gold+ or better). 750w should be fine but you can always go a little higher if you think you might swap out GPUs at a later date to something more powerful. Adam W Inbox also-rans Not an exact response to Andrew J but if he's struggling on compatibility between parts then this is a great site which when you start building out your machine it only shows compatible parts. Steve And people thought GTA 6 would have a big price! Thanks for this great sale at Very, it's more affordable. Mark Matthews Email your comments to: gamecentral@ More Trending The small print New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers' letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content. You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader's Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot. You can also leave your comments below and don't forget to follow us on Twitter. MORE: Games Inbox: Does it matter that physical video games are dying? MORE: Games Inbox: What's the best way to play Nintendo Switch 2? MORE: Games Inbox: When will Switch 2 get a new 3D Mario game?
Metro
14 hours ago
- Metro
Every new video game for 2025 and 2026 from Sony, Nintendo and major publishers
As Gamescom Opening Night Live approaches, we look at what upcoming games are known to be in development and what could be revealed this year. With Gamescom 2025 taking place next week, you can look forward to plenty of new video game announcements and updates during Geoff Keighley's Opening Night Live show. Trying to predict what will be featured at the show is very difficult though, as while there are many big name games currently known to be in development, when they'll be properly revealed in public is largely a mystery. But we've tried to create a rundown of the biggest publishers and developers – including Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft – and what they're meant to be working on at the moment. There're no doubt other secrets they're all hiding but this is more than enough to get excited about for now. Bandai Namco has long been the go-to company for pumping out anime tie-ins, and it's currently working on yet another My Hero Academia fighting game, a Dragon Ball MOBA, and an original Digimon role-playing game in Digimon Story: Time Stranger. So, it's bound to have other similar projects waiting in the wings; it's just a question of which anime they'll be based on. Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. We are also due a new entry in Bandai Namco's Tales series of role-players. While there have been some remasters, the last original one, Tales Of Arise, came out four years ago, so there's bound to be a new one in the works by now. The company's close working relationship with Nintendo means it couldbe supporting development on some of Nintendo's secret Switch 2 exclusives. Nintendo let it lead development on games such as Pokémon Snap, the upcoming Kirby Air Riders, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, so that relationship is unlikely to change. We do know Bandai Namco opted to cancel a Nintendo commissioned project last year, but there's nothing to indicate what it was or why it was cancelled. Bandai Namco could also begin collaborating more often with Sony, following Sony's recent 68 billion yen (£343 million) investment. It's hardly a buy-out, but it has been described as a 'strategic partnership.' Perhaps Bandai Namco will help bring more PlayStation games to Switch, as they have with Patapon 1 + 2 Replay and the upcoming Everybody's Golf Hot Shots. Sony has expressed an interest in more multiplatform releases but it prefers to have other companies, like Bandai Namco, publish them. Capcom's been enjoying a hot streak the last several years, even if the wheels do seem to have come off Monster Hunter Wilds recently. Resident Evil Requiem is obviously the next big one, but Onimusha: Way Of The Sword and the Okami sequel show Capcom's also become open to revisiting other legacy franchises. Pragmata also looks solid, following its years long absence, and between that and Kunitsu-Gami: Path Of The Goddess, Capcom must feel comfortable approving wholly original games, that aren't guaranteed to be as financially fruitful as Resident Evil or Monster Hunter. That makes it all the more confusing that there's still no indication of a Devil May Cry 6, despite the series enjoying a sales boost from the Netflix show. Mega Man fans are also feeling neglected, since there remain no new announcements, even after all those retro collections and Capcom describing Mega Man as an 'important' IP in a recent shareholder's meeting. It's a similar scenario for Ace Attorney. The series' entire back catalogue is now readily available on most platforms (including games that were once Japan-only) yet despite promises of continuing the series, a new game hasn't even been teased. As for the company's fighting game portfolio, Street Fighter 6 will remain a major focus, and thanks to the announcement of Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls it's now very unlikely there'll ever be a new Marvel Vs. Capcom. However, there are rumours of Capcom Vs. SNK 3, even if that's more likely to be announced at a venue like the Tokyo Game Show in September. EA's currently preoccupied with ensuring Battlefield 6 is bigger than Call Of Duty, but it still has multiple Star Wars and Marvel games in the works, despite some high-profile cancellations. And despite so many being on the menu, none of them have had proper reveals yet. There's next to no official info on Star Wars Jedi 3, beyond it being the final entry in the trilogy. While next year's Star Wars Zero Company has been announced, but never shown in action. As for Marvel, EA has said its partnership means it'll release three superhero games in the near feature. Although the first, Motive Studio's Iron Man, hasn't had any proper updates or a trailer since its 2022 announcement. Perhaps its biggest upcoming project is the next Mass Effect, which EA and BioWare have remained very reticent about. It's been nearly five years since the initial teaser and in the wake of Dragon Age: The Veilguard's underperformance, it feels like the next Mass Effect could be a make it or break it moment for BioWare. FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki has said the studio has multiple projects in the works at the moment, but only one – Switch 2 exclusive The Duskbloods for 2026 – has formally been announced. And that's another multiplayer game rather than the studio's next, traditional single-player project. It has been claimed FromSoftware has a second game for next year and a common theory is that it's a remaster of Dark Souls 3. At the very least, it's too soon for it to be a new Armored Core or Elden Ring 2. In fact, Miyazaki has expressed little interest in doing the latter. Anything Bloodborne related can also probably be ruled out, since that ball is in Sony's court and it's shown zero interest in a remaster or sequel so far. FromSoftware may not even be working on another Soulslike, as their recent run of success has surely granted them the freedom to branch out, if they want to. Konami never really stopped publishing traditional video games and yet it feels like it's made quite the comeback in recent years. Aside from retro collections for Castlevania and Metal Gear (and Gradius), Silent Hill returned in a big way thanks to the Silent Hill 2 remake, with multiple original entries like Silent Hill f still to come. The Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater remake may do the same for Metal Gear and Konami's even been willing to resurrect its less famous franchises like Suikoden and Survival Kids. So, where on Earth is that Castlevania revival? Konami's lent the IP to other studios as crossover material, but even after two successful Netflix shows and constant rumours of new games being in the works, Konami hasn't so much as hinted at them. At this rate, it feels like more obscure Konami IPs will get a new chance in the spotlight before Castlevania. Konami still has quite the back catalogue it can potentially pull from, such as 2D platformer Rocket Knight or role-player Vandal Hearts. It even has its own fighting game series, Bloody Roar, and it probably won't be long till it gives Contra another try. Nintendo has announced several Switch 1 and Switch 2 games for the remainder of 2025 and 2026, and yet it still feels like the company's not sharing the full picture. It certainly doesn't have any big-name releases scheduled beyond Pokémon Legends: Z-A in October and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond at some point this year. Some games are safe bets – a new Fire Emblem, a new Animal Crossing, Splatoon 4 – but it's impossible to tell when any of these will launch as well as what any of the smaller-scale in-between games will be. There was hope a summer Nintendo Direct could answer the most pressing questions, but all we've had are showcases focusing on third parties and indies. There will likely be another Nintendo Direct before the end of the year, possibly even September given Nintendo's track record. Although that's likely to be focused mostly or exclusively on Metroid Prime 4. September will also mark the Super Mario Bros. franchise's 40th anniversary though, so hopefully Nintendo has something special planned for that. It'd be the perfect time to announce a new 3D Mario game, which we've heard nothing about so far. Considering it's nearly been 10 years since Super Mario Odyssey, it's hard to imagine no work has been done on its successor, even though the development team has been busy with Donkey Kong Bananza. Although we're unlikely to hear about any of that at Gamescom, or anything other than a Nintendo Direct. The PlayStation 5 may be crushing the Xbox Series X/S in terms of sales, but current day Sony has an unfortunate reputation for barely releasing any big exclusives for the console. It does have Ghost Of Yōtei coming this year, Returnal successor Saros in 2026, and eventually Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet (the first non-Last Of Us related Naughty Dog project in what feels like forever), but next to nothing has been shown about the latter two so far. Aside from that though, it's just more attempts at breaking into the live service games market. Although a handful of such projects have since been cancelled, with Sony recently admitting its long-term strategy hasn't gone smoothly, it undoubtedly hopes to strike gold with Bungie's Marathon (which is already proving troublesome, before it's even out) and the still absent Fairgame$. In lieu of any official explanation from Sony, the running theory is that most, if not all of the PlayStation studios had to pivot to live service games several years back and only now is Sony reversing course, which is why its main franchises haven't seen any new instalments in years. As such, it's difficult to tell what else Sony has planned at the moment. Rumours of a God Of War prequel have yet to go anywhere, a new Horizon is happening but Guerrilla Games is also busy with a multiplayer spin-off, and while a bunch of Marvel projects at Insomniac Games were leaked, those plans may have completely changed since then. Given the timing, it wouldn't be shocking if a bunch of PlayStation 5 games became cross-gen releases for the PlayStation 6, which is widely believed to be coming in the next two years or so. Sony will probably air one more State of Play showcase before the year is up, although sometimes they also use third party events like Gamescom. Compared to others, Sega's future line-up is easier to predict thanks to the triple threat of Sonic The Hedgehog, Like A Dragon, and Persona. All three are guaranteed to keep getting new games, since they're among Sega's most lucrative IPs, with leaked sales data revealing Persona outperforms Sonic. Atlus is meant to be working on Persona 6, the first wholly new entry in the series since 2017's Persona 5, though that must be taking a while since its next game is another remake, this time for Persona 4. Although the success of Metaphor: ReFantazio likely means that'll see a sequel soon enough too. The next projects from Like A Dragon developer RGG Studio are a Virtua Fighter revival and an original IP called Stranger Than Heaven. Neither has a release date yet, plus there's bound to be a new Like A Dragon, or two, in development too. As for Sonic, a Sonic Frontiers follow-up is a safe assumption, but Sega's been keeping quiet about the next platformer, with the next project being the racing spin-off Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. The company's discussed potential Sonic remakes in the past, although series producer Takashi Iizuka ruled out remaking the two Sonic Adventure games, saying that time could be better spent on original projects. The same can't be said for all those retro revivals Sega is planning. The first of these – a new Shinobi game – launches this month, although none of the others (Jet Set Radio, Crazy Taxi, Streets Of Rage, Golden Axe) have received an update or trailer since the 2023 announcement at The Game Awards. Square Enix has a handful of games to close out 2025, but they're smaller titles and most of them are either remasters or remakes. The Final Fantasy Tactics remaster is a big deal for PS1 fans and the sales success of the Dragon Quest 3 remake means the remakes of the first two games should do well, but these are very much targeted at an existing fan audience. Same goes for another Romancing SaGa remaster and Octopath Traveler 0, the only wholly new release on Square Enix's schedule. And even that's technically not true since it's based on a delisted mobile game. As for 2026, all Square Enix has are the recently announced The Adventures Of Elliot: The Millennium Tales and more ports of Final Fantasy 7 Remake. So, it's currently lacking in significant releases. There are some major projects in the works – Kingdom Hearts 4, Dragon Quest 12, and the finale of the Final Fantasy 7 remake series – but details on all of them are slim to non-existent. Although the next Final Fantasy 7 game will likely launch before the end of the decade. Dragon Quest 12, however, has been a non-entity for years and although Kingdom Hearts 4 saw an update this year, it was only a small handful of screenshots, that immediately followed news of the cancellation of a Kingdom Hearts mobile game. That's also not including the long rumoured Final Fantasy 9 remake, which continues to hover over Square Enix thanks to this year being the original game's 25th anniversary. Square Enix has said it intends to focus on multiplatform releases following less than stellar launches for the PlayStation 5 exclusive Final Fantasy 16 and Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, so you should expect those to become more commonplace in the coming years, as well as further ports of its back catalogue. Once Borderlands 4 is out of the way in September, Take-Two can truly focus on GTA 6, which will be the company's sole priority even after it launches in May 2026, since the goal will no doubt be to replicate GTA 5's long term success. That's not to say Take-Two won't want any other games out in 2026, but it's difficult to predict what its non-GTA 6 plans are beyond the annual NBA 2K and WWE 2K games. You can certainly rule out Bioshock 4, which has been in the works for years but is set to see a huge overhaul per a recent Bloomberg report. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has assured the game will come out, but such changes point to it still being years away. Now that Civilization 7's out, it'd be nice if developer Firaxis Games can return to the XCOM series, considering there hasn't been a new entry since 2020. But that's probably not likely after Midnight Suns flopped and many of the top developers left. Ubisoft should have a lot on its plate at the moment, but so much of its release schedule remains uncertain. The Assassin's Creed series has no less than 10 games rumoured to be in the works at the moment, including an Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag remake. There's also a rumoured Far Cry 7 and multiplayer spin-off, a rumoured The Crew 3, a Splinter Cell remake, a new Ghost Recon, a new Rayman game, and The Division 3, as well as the eternally absent Beyond Good & Evil 2, but none of them have firm release dates. The only game Ubisoft has scheduled for 2026 is the Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time remake, which has had a tumultuous development cycle, to say the least, and has suffered frequent delays. Curiously, Ubisoft chose not to hold its annual Ubisoft Forward showcase this year, which suggests it didn't feel it had anything worth showing at the time to generate meaningful buzz. So maybe it'll use Gamescom instead. Ever since 2023's Hogwarts Legacy, Warner Bros. has been unable to find similar success with anything else, which sadly led to the closure of three of its game studios, the cancellation of a Wonder Woman game, and another restructuring of its gaming division. It's no wonder then that the only upcoming game Warner Bros. officially has is Hogwarts Legacy 2. There is a new Game Of Thrones strategy game launching for PC next year, but that's being handled by an outside studio and not being developed internally. There's no shortage of rumours for future Warner Bros. projects though. Injustice 3 is the obvious next pick for NetherRealm after Mortal Kombat 1 and it could fair decently thanks to DC's new cinematic universe kicking off strongly with James Gunn's Superman movie. Rocksteady is reportedly playing things safe with a new Batman game, after the failure of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. Speaking of, a new Lego Batman game is rumoured to be at Gamescom next week. Beyond that, it's hard to expect anything else from Warner Bros. that isn't Harry Potter, DC, or Game Of Thrones related. Following Microsoft's recent round of lay-offs and game cancellations, it's easy to wonder if there's anything left for its gaming division to pump out. But in terms of titles published by Xbox Game Studios, the company does still have a handful of games on the way. The Gears Of War remaster is next on the docket, followed by Double Fine's Keeper, Ninja Gaiden 4, and finally The Outer Worlds 2 to close out 2025. But things start to get more nebulous when you look past that. Fable's the only game with a 2026 release date (it was meant to launch this year) and Gears Of War: E-Day (the first new entry since 2019, if you don't include the tactics spin-off), and State Of Decay 3 still lack concrete release dates. Obviously, there's still Activision and Bethesda to consider, though the former's currently offering nothing but more annual Call Of Duty games and the latter's most anticipated projects – The Elder Scrolls 6 and Fallout 5 – are nowhere close to being finished. More Trending When it comes to rumours, the only noteworthy one is the Halo: Combat Evolved remaster/remake, which sounds like a Hail Mary to revitalise interest in the franchise after Halo Infinite. A back-to-basics approach could very well work and get people excited for the other Halo projects Microsoft has promised, especially since it'd likely launch for PlayStation 5 too and thus attract new fans. Microsoft's multiplatform strategy has paid dividends so far, so one thing that's safely guaranteed for 2026 is more PlayStation and Nintendo ports of Xbox exclusives. Some games may still launch for Xbox first, but the likes of Doom: The Dark Ages and The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered point to this practice becoming less common. Xbox may have a presence at Tokyo Game Show this September and another small showcase before the end of the year, based on previous showcases, but these'll likely focus on third party games rather than its own in-house projects. You'd need to wait for another Developer Direct for those and Microsoft has so far only aired these in January, followed by the big blowout E3 style showcases in the summer. Email gamecentral@ leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader's Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. MORE: EA refused to let BioWare make a Dragon Age: Origins remake claims developer MORE: GTA 6 cost might surprise fans as Take-Two boss talks 'fair price' MORE: Microsoft kills another Xbox exclusive but Hideo Kojima's OD is still alive
