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Every new trailer from Gamescom Opening Night Live 2023Catch up on everything announced during ONL 2023
Catch up on everything announced during ONL 2023
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Inflexion/Epic Games Publishing/Bandai Namco
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Inflexion/Epic Games Publishing/Bandai Namco
Geoffcom 2023 has crested its initial crescendous wave with Gamescom Opening Night Live. The yearly gaming show has delivered its usual tantalising (and sometimes baffling) smorgasbord of videogame announcements, trailers, updates, news, and more. And now we’ve got a much better idea of what games to expect over the course of the next, oh, seven hundred years.
Below we’ve compiled an exhaustive (oh so exhaustive) list of all 36 trailers and announcements shown at this year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live, so if you want a roundup of everything you missed, you’re in the right place. Deep breaths everyone. And away we go.
All the Gamescom Opening Night Live trailers and announcements
Starfield keeps the hype train going with a live-action trailer
Starfield World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONLWatch on YouTube
Starfield World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONL
After that (and an unexpected interlude involving a stage invasion), Bethesda Big Boss Todd Howard was invited up onto the Keighley (that’s what we’re calling the stage from now on, deal with it), and spent some time saying a bunch of things that can be said about bothStarfieldandMass Effect, though the general consensus is that he was talking about the former.
Little Nightmares 3 launches in 2024, with more creepy sidescrolling puzzles
Little Nightmares III – Announcement TrailerWatch on YouTube
Little Nightmares III – Announcement Trailer
Creepy platformerLittle Nightmaresis back with its third game, in which we see two new protagonists seemingly making their way through what seemed like a twisted doll house, among other locales. There seemed to be a theme of traversing a world full of goods that were used and discarded, with the trailer ending on the shot of junk pouring out of a rubbish chute.
They also announced a new podcast series, The Sounds of Nightmares, which is an original story in the same universe. It’s six episodes long, and the first two are available right now.Little Nightmares 3itself is coming out in 2024.
Black Myth: Wukong trailer shows off some boss-bashing action
Black Myth: Wukong World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONLWatch on YouTube
Black Myth: Wukong World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONL
Killing Floor 3 will unleash a new wave of zombies, but we don’t know when
Killing Floor 3 - Announcement TrailerWatch on YouTube
Killing Floor 3 - Announcement Trailer
Next up, we got to see a trailer forKilling Floor 3, the new sequel in the zombie-wave survival franchise. This was a particularly gory clip of a zombie-like flesh dumpster being cut open and spliced with tech augmentations that soon had it wreaking havoc and tearing through walls. I’d hope this was a boss, because if that’s a look at the standard enemy type… Well, then we’re really in for it.
There was no release date for Killing Floor 3, but it’s coming to PS5, Xbox Series consoles, and PC via Steam and Epic.
Age Of Empires IV is coming to Xbox
Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition – Official Console Launch TrailerWatch on YouTube
Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition – Official Console Launch Trailer
Excellent RTSAge Of Empires IVis coming to Xbox with an overhauled control system and lots of wheel UIs that make me very happy to look upon. AOE4 is a frankly incredible follow-up and homage to one of the most successful RTS games of all time, and while the trailer was little more than lots of shots of units organising themselves into formations and bashing up against walls or castles or each other, it was enough to make me want to load it up again for another dozen losses - I mean, matches.
Rebel Moon is a Zack Snyder film, and also a game?
Rebel Moon | Official Teaser Trailer | NetflixWatch on YouTube
Rebel Moon | Official Teaser Trailer | Netflix
Zack Snyder, of Zack Snyder’s Justice League fame, is making a new movie calledRebel Moon. Tis a space adventure coming to Netflix, split into two parts, but we aren’t bothered about that. What wearebothered about (maybe), is that developer Super Evil Megacorp are also developing a Rebel Moon video game that’ll take place after the two movies. Snyder says you can “pick your rebel and go on missions”, which literally tells us nothing. Thanks, Zack.
Crimson Desert shows off fights, traversal, and one cute lamb
Crimson Desert – Official Gameplay Trailer | gamescom ONL 2023Watch on YouTube
Crimson Desert – Official Gameplay Trailer | gamescom ONL 2023
Payday 3 has a heist featuring Ice-T, for some reason?
PAYDAY 3: Gamescom TrailerWatch on YouTube
PAYDAY 3: Gamescom Trailer
Rapper Ice-T appeared to say that he does in fact know a lot about heists in real life, so he also has a heist in upcoming heist-festPayday 3. We got a little look at Ice’s heist, and they definitely weren’t playing stealthy! Lots of shooting, lots of ‘splosions, a very good shot of a Cloaker drop-kicking someone in true Payday fashion. I’m very excited for more Payday, and it’s not far away! Payday 3 launches on September 21st.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s new trailer gives us a taste of Baghdad ahead of October release
Assassin’s Creed Mirage: The Round City of BaghdadWatch on YouTube
Assassin’s Creed Mirage: The Round City of Baghdad
Images of a cosy 9th century Baghdad and its citizens getting on with their daily grind quickly turns into silent, precise bloodshed in the latest trailer forAssassin’s Creed Mirage. Ubisoft’s next game in the venerable action series returns both to the Middle East and to smaller, more linear stories, and reiterates its Autumn release date of 5th October 2023.
Tekken 8 has an arcade mode with chibi avatars
Tekken 8 World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONLWatch on YouTube
Tekken 8 World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONL
Tekken 8got a new trailer in which we saw lots of fights cracking off in an epic downpour. If big, muscly types swinging fists at each other in the rain wasn’t enough for you, though, we also got to hear about a new mode that focuses on the arcade scene, with mii-esque avatars sat playing on arcade machines. I would guess they’re playing Tekken. Do we play them playing Tekken? Do we play them playing another avatar who is playing Tekken? How far does the Tekken-ception go?
They also shared that this mode will have some “AI-enthused learning” aspects, but didn’t expand further on what that actually means. We won’t need to wait long to find out, though, because Tekken 8 launches on January 26, 2024.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s new trailer leaves us in no doubt that this is COD, once again
Campaign Premiere | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare IIIWatch on YouTube
Campaign Premiere | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III
Gaslamp fantasy survival game Nightingale gets an early access release date
Nightingale | Release Date Trailer | gamescom 2023Watch on YouTube
Nightingale | Release Date Trailer | gamescom 2023
Every time I see a newNightingaletrailer, I’m reminded of how angry I am that I haven’t been invited to one of their closed beta playtests yet. But as it turns out, soon that won’t matter, because the game will enter early access in February next year! Tonight’s look at the fascinating fantasy survival game showed off a lot of sumptuously unusual-looking creatures and enemies, and a few punchy-looking shots with rifles and blunderbusses, along with a glimpse at the game’s innovative dimension-hopping Realm Cards mechanic.
Granblue Fantasy Relink has cool airships, but the sky is also falling
Granblue Fantasy Relink - Reveal Trailer | gamescom 2023Watch on YouTube
Granblue Fantasy Relink - Reveal Trailer | gamescom 2023
Granblue Fantasy Relinkgot a new trailer, showing off some flashy anime combat and someverycool airships. I’m a big fan of airships that look like pirate ships, and this had one! They remind me of Treasure Planet, which is just such a great movie.
The rest of the trailer, understandably, didn’t look like Treasure Planet. Instead, we saw some big demons that looked like they belonged on a Yu-Gi-Oh card and some big fiery fella spewing… well, fire. You can fight the big fiery fella when Granblue Fantasy Relink launches on February 1st, 2024.
Immortals Of Aveum is out now, has Gina Torres being Gina Torres
Immortals of Aveum™ | Official Launch TrailerWatch on YouTube
Immortals of Aveum™ | Official Launch Trailer
A breezy intro from Gina Torres leads into a high-octane trailer for the already-hereImmortals Of Aveum, a magical action shooter where a huge amount of time is evidently spent doing flourishes and other needlessly flamboyant-looking intricacies with your fingers and hands to “reload” your spells. Check out ourImmortals Of Aveum reviewif you’re in danger of getting excited. It’ll bring you back to earth.
Zenless Zone Zero lets you play as a wolf man, who is already the best character
Zenless Zone Zero World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONLWatch on YouTube
Zenless Zone Zero World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONL
This really would be one for Rebecca (RPS in peace) - hi Rebecca!! - but I shall pick up the torch to talk aboutZenless Zone Zero. This is an urban fantasy ARPG from theGenshin Impactand Honkai Star Rail folks, gacha-gurus miHoYO.
The new trailer showed some of the characters we’ll meet, including a wolf man! A big wolf man! He looked cool! There was also a brief look at an arcade game that you can presumably play in ZZZ, before we got to see the player characters (including wolf man!!) fighting some big ol’ mechs.
No more news on when we can expect to see Zenless Zone Zero, but there’s more from miHoYo in the following sections.
Honkai: Star Rail is getting a PS5 technical test soon
Honkai: Star Rail World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONLWatch on YouTube
Honkai: Star Rail World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONL
In true MiHiYO style, a newcomer would likely finish watching the newHonkai: Star Railtrailer looking like Shrek and Donkey after the Duloc song in Shrek, because there’s just no way that anything that just happened on-screen made any sense at all. But hey, the music is great, the characters are stupidly hot, and the game is actually really goddamn good. And the important information was at the end:Honkai: Star Rail’s PS5 technical test will begin soon, and recruitment starts tomorrow.
A Genshin Impact concert series is touring the world over the next year
Genshin Impact World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONLWatch on YouTube
Genshin Impact World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONL
We also got a brief look at the gorgeous vistas of newGenshin Impactregion, Fontaine, with some suitably epic orchestral music. Speaking of music, there’s also a Genshin Impact concert series touring the world between 2023 and 2024. It’ll visit Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Guadalajara, Boston, Osaka, Seoul, Los Angeles, Yokohama, Chicago, London, New York, and Dusseldorf. The series is titled Melodies of an Endless Journey.
Lords Of The Fallen’s new story trailer is vague, but shows off some enemies that scream FromSoftware
Lords of the Fallen World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONLWatch on YouTube
Lords of the Fallen World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONL
Lords Of The Fallen sequelLords Of The Fallen(creative naming) got a new story trailer, in which we saw a hulking demon impale a man in a jagged crown (possibly a lord?) before slicing their head off. A lord no more, then. We then got to see glimpses of a bunch of the baddies you’ll fight in Lords Of The Fallen.
It’s definitely trying to give off some FromSoftware vibes, and the bosses we see, if briefly, do look gnarly and strange enough to stand alongside some ofElden Ring’s best. We’ll see whether Lords Of The Fallen can stand up against such competition, though, when it launches on October 13th, 2023.
Sonic Superstars launches on October 17th
Sonic Superstars World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONLWatch on YouTube
Sonic Superstars World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONL
My god, the tonal shift is giving me whiplash. From Lords Of The Fallen we glide intoSonic Superstarswith a relentlessly upbeat trailer showing off its four-player co-op multiplayer. Four of them! Running around at the speed of sound! All at the same time! Knuckles, Tails, and Amy are all there with the blue boi himself in this new 3D sidescrolling platformer. The big news is that Sonic Superstars finally has a release date, and is launching on October 17th, 2023.
Sonic Frontiers is getting a free story update, which also features new playable characters
Sonic Frontiers World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONLWatch on YouTube
Sonic Frontiers World Premiere Trailer | gamescom Opening Night Live 2023 #ONL
Sonic Frontiersis also a game! Remember that? Oh, how fast a year can feel in vidya games land. Geoff forgets nothing, though, and he shows off a new trailer for Sonic Frontiers which focuses on an upcoming update: The Final Horizon. In this update, you’ll unravel a new story as you take the mantle of characters such as Super Sonic (Super Saiyan Sonic) and Dr Eggman (who is obviously not very Sonic-like).
Sonic Frontiers’ The Final Horizon update is free, and will launch on September 28th, 2023, for Playstation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Series X and S, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
The First Descendant is a third-person looter shooter with gigantic bosses
The First Descendant│Official Trailer Reveal (4K)│Gamescom ONL 2023Watch on YouTube
The First Descendant│Official Trailer Reveal (4K)│Gamescom ONL 2023
The First Descendantcame next, with an action-packed trailer that shifts from cinematic to explosion-filled gameplay about 50 times per second. In the final 30 seconds of the trailer we got a look at a fair few oversized bosses to battle against in this upcoming next-gen looter shooter. It all looks very sleek and Destiny-esque to my eyes, with lots of flashy science-fantasy abilities being used to wipe out groups of enemies with a single button-press.
Under The Waves sends you on a spooky underwater adventure, and you can pilot a submarine
Under the Waves - Launch TrailerWatch on YouTube
Under the Waves - Launch Trailer
Next up, a new look at the third-person adventureUnder The Wavesfrom Quantic Dream. In the trailer, we see a diver, Stan, exploring the murky depths of the ocean as a storm begins to rage above. Stan can’t abandon ship, though, and must weather the dangers to come as he sets out to uncover the mysteries hidden… Under the Waves! Wait, that’s the title! Under The Waves launches on August 29th, 2023.
Fort Solis has some intense corridor scenes
Fort Solis - Launch Trailer | PS5 GamesWatch on YouTube
Fort Solis - Launch Trailer | PS5 Games
Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game is a terrible title, but it’ll let you fly drones
Expeditions: A MudRunner Game – World Premiere Reveal | Opening Night Live 2023Watch on YouTube
Expeditions: A MudRunner Game – World Premiere Reveal | Opening Night Live 2023
If you enjoyed the thrilling mundanity of getting stuck in the mud/snow in Mud/Snowrunner, Saber Interactive are back with another game in the franchise -Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game! That title’s a bit clunky, butMudrunnerandSnowrunnerare genuinely excellent trucking-in-terrible-conditions sims, and Expeditions looks set to deliver more of the same. It expands on the formula, with drones now available to pilot, but there’s also plenty of winching on trees and perilously driving near a cliff-edge that looks familiar and ever-so-fun. Expeditions: A Mudrunner Game (seriously, what is with that name) launches in 2024.
The Crew Motorfest is a car game, with cars
The Crew Motorfest: Launch Gameplay Trailer | Opening Night LiveWatch on YouTube
The Crew Motorfest: Launch Gameplay Trailer | Opening Night Live
I’m the wrong person to be doing the write-up for this one. Whenever cars appear on-screen, my mind goes blank, and the only thought that ping-pongs through my mind is “ooh, shiny”. But that’s really what they were aiming for with this trailer forThe Crew Motorfest, Ubisoft’s incredibly shiny new racing game coming in mid-September.
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty — New Ways to PlayWatch on YouTube
Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty — New Ways to Play
This quickly moved into a section focused on the new vehicle combat mechanics coming in Phantom Liberty, in which we spied someWatch Dogs-esque hacking of vehicles and plenty of shootouts while barreling down a motorway. This also showed off the new police system, with MaxTec carriers deploying troops to chase down V, the player character, as they unleashed carnage from the safety of their car.
Finally, they also announced that a lot of the new upgrades in the expansion will come in a free Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update for current-gen consoles and PC. Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty launches on September 26th, 2023, alongside the free update.
Upcoming RTS Stormgate shows off its new faction, which totally isn’t the Zerg
Stormgate Infernal Host First Look | Opening Night Live Gamescom 2023Watch on YouTube
Stormgate Infernal Host First Look | Opening Night Live Gamescom 2023
It’s a decade ago, andStarcraft 2is coming out soon! Except it’s not Starcraft 2, it’sStormgate- a spiritual successor which makes absolutely no attempt to hide its inspirations. This bite-sized developer-narrated trailer introduces a new faction: the Infernal Host. They operate using Shroud, fields of “dark magic” which spread across the map much like, oh, I don’t know… Zerg creep? Ahh who cares, Starcraft is excellent, more of that please.
Last Epoch is getting a new class, the Runemaster
Last Epoch - Runes of Power Patch 0.9.2 - Coming September 7thWatch on YouTube
Last Epoch - Runes of Power Patch 0.9.2 - Coming September 7th
If you’ve been enjoying Diablo 4 but are looking for something new,Last Epochcould be for you. It’s an ARPG that’s currently out in early access, and the team joined Geoff to announce the new Runemaster class. The Runemaster has a unique mechanic that lets them use up to 40 different abilities with a single button, making it a class that favours experimenting with a wide range of skills. The Runemaster class is launching on September 7th, 2023.
Marvel Snap’s new update finally brings widescreen to PC
MARVEL SNAP is Now on PC | OFFICIAL PC LAUNCH TRAILERWatch on YouTube
MARVEL SNAP is Now on PC | OFFICIAL PC LAUNCH TRAILER
Ben Brode is back with Geoff andincrediblyexcited - and for good reason! He announced thatMarvel Snaphas been rebuilt for PC, shedding the shoddy mobile-esque format that it’s been running since launch for a new, refined experience that’s suited for desktop. This is really awesome news, because Marvel Snap continues to be one of the best digital card games, but the old mobile UI made it really hard to show off to pals without them going “yikes, what is that”.
And, thankfully, we won’t need to wait any longer for this new Marvel Snap update, as it’s live right now on Steam! Best announcement of the show, right here.
Armored Core VI launch trailer whets our appetite with lots of mechsplosions
ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON — Launch TrailerWatch on YouTube
ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON — Launch Trailer
Warhaven is a free-to-play multiplayer medieval deathmatch
Watch on YouTube
Warhaven, the upcoming free-to-play medieval fantasy combat game, got a new trailer that showed off very little combat gameplay. Instead, we got some story details which basically featured some knights smacking each other with swords. You can also smack knights with swords! It’ll look a lot less cinematic than this trailer, of course, but you can see how it does actually look in just under a month. Warhaven launches on Steam on September 21st, 2023.
Mortal Kombat 1 shows off some brutal fatalities, because some things never change
Mortal Kombat 1 - Official Rulers of Outworld TrailerWatch on YouTube
Mortal Kombat 1 - Official Rulers of Outworld Trailer
Ed Boon strolled out to chat with Geoff next, ready to speak about upcoming fighting gameMortal Kombat 1. That’s the one with the FATALITIES, and Boon promised their “craziest trailer of all”. Well, the trailer absolutely delivered on that. It introduced some of the new characters coming to Outworld, before getting into some of its bloody battles featuring a General who enjoyed slamming a big axe into other iconic members of the Mortal Kombat roster.
The General then comes face-to-face with the new Raiden, who’s looking a lot younger after the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey shenanigans that went off in Mortal Kombat 11. The two scrap in a lightning-infused fight (thanks to Raiden), before we get to see an epic fatality in which Raiden tossed the General into the air before crashing down onto his ribcage. There were a lot more fatalities to come, because what else would you expect from Mortal Kombat? You can deliver your own fatalities when Mortal Kombat 1 launches on September 19th, 2023.
Ara: History Untold allows you to rewrite history in grand (strategy) fashion
Ara: History Untold Gameplay TrailerWatch on YouTube
Ara: History Untold Gameplay Trailer
A first look at the gameplay ofAra: History Untoldgave us a first idea of how ambitious this turn-based grand strategy game has become. Of course, grand scope is part and parcel of the grand strategy genre, but Ara: History Untold looks to focus heavily on changing Earth’s history as you see fit, from blank terrain all the way to a sprawling Manhattan megatropolis, with… Wait, is that the Eiffel Tower at its centre?
Diablo 4: Season Of Blood brings vampiric powers and 5 new endgame bosses in October
Diablo IV | Season of Blood | Announce TrailerWatch on YouTube
Diablo IV | Season of Blood | Announce Trailer
Next, we got an early new trailer forDiablo 4Season 2. In this trailer, we learned about killings that have kicked off across Sanctuary, sowing fear across the land while the church ignored the brutalities. These killings have grown twisted, though, with corpses coming back from the dead as ravenous zombies. As the plague spreads, you’ll need to step up to combat this new evil while completing a new questline, unlocking vampiric powers, and tackling 5 new endgame bosses in the Season Of Blood. Gemma Chan, of Captain Marvel, Eternals, and Don’t Worry Darling fame, will play vampire hunter Eris in the new story. Diablo 4 Season Of Blood launches on October 17th, 2023, just in time for Halloween.
Dustborn sends you on a road trip across the Divided States of America
Dustborn - Reveal TrailerWatch on YouTube
Dustborn - Reveal Trailer
Dustbornis a story-driven action-adventure game about hope, love, friendship, and cool robots. In Dustborn, you go on a roadtrip across the Divided States of America with your pals. The fighting in this game features a “lingual arsenal” according to the Steam page, which allows you to craft new words and wield them like actual weapons to fight your way out of dangerous situations. We didn’t get a ton of new details on what to expect here, but Dustborn is coming in early 2024.
Thank Goodness You’re Here! is an “absurd comedy slapformer”, and you absolutely need to watch the trailer
Thank Goodness You’re Here! - Reveal TrailerWatch on YouTube
Thank Goodness You’re Here! - Reveal Trailer
Creepy Alan Wake 2 trailer delves into Alan’s mind and the Dark Place
Alan Wake 2 — The Dark Place Trailer | Gamescom Opening Night Live 2023Watch on YouTube
Alan Wake 2 — The Dark Place Trailer | Gamescom Opening Night Live 2023
To close off the evening, Sam Lake, Creative Director at Remedy Entertainment, steps up onto the Keighley to present the latest look atAlan Wake 2, and specifically the character of Alan Wake and the sinister alternate dimension of the Dark Place. The creepy trailer that follows mixes live-action with gameplay, and leaves viewers in absolutely no doubt of the game’s horror roots.
For more of the latest news and previews from Gamescom 2023, head to ourGamescom 2023 hub. You can also findeverything announced at Opening Night Liveright here.
