Summer Game Fest 2026 Video Game Announcements: My Favorites
As much as I love Summer Game Fest, I am so slow at actually checking out the games that I get excited for. Last year, I did a similar post for my favorite announcements. After a year already having passed, eight of my 16 games from 2025’s SGF have already released in some capacity. I have played none of them. My backlog is so large, time so limited, and money so precious at the moment, it’s hard to get something new and actually play it. I did manage to try DarkSwitch’s demo and decided it wasn’t for me after all. That’s progress, right? Right?
Hopefully I can do better this year, but my history says otherwise. A man can dream, though…
2026’s Summer Game Fest had stellar variety. Detectives, management, simulation, horror, narrative, action, shooters, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic… this year had something interesting for every category. Here are my favorite announcements that leave me salivating when looking at the video games to come.
Neighborhoods
I enjoy city builders, and Neighborhoods caught my eye during the MIX Summer Game Showcase on June 1. While it didn’t strike me as a profound reinvention of city building, it drew me in with its claymation aesthetic that I haven’t seen in a city builder yet. It continues to add to the new but relatively small trend of bringing quirky film styles to the gaming world. This includes games like Out of Words and Felt That: Boxing that utilize stop-motion and puppeteering respectively for their games. I’ve been looking for my next city builder for a little bit, and hopefully this will do the trick when it releases.
Meadgard
In the not-so-distant past, I went on a tear of trying to find a tavern simulator. I found a number of good candidates. I really had my hopes up for the release of Tavern Keeper but was disappointed that after such a long wait, it released to early access. For a number of reasons, I avoid early access titles these days. Ale & Tale Tavern has been on my radar, but it feels like the game doesn’t know what it’s trying to be. Is it a simulation game? A survival crafting game? An adventure game? It tries to be all of these, and I’ve held off on purchasing it because I’m concerned that in this pursuit, it will turn out to be none of them. Tavern Talk is very much in line with the Coffee Talk series but in a high fantasy setting. My concern is that even though I continue to play the Coffee Talk games, I’ve yet to fall in love with them.
Meadgard makes me think my search might come to an end with its release, though. While it has a lot of the same aspects as Ale & Tale Tavern (including co-op play), it appears to approach it with a bit more of a chaotic, fast-paced angle that I think could really set it apart. The perspective and seemingly quick management gameplay reminds me a lot of Plate Up!, and who doesn’t want more Plate Up! in their life?
Hands Over
As I will reiterate in a bit when I discuss another game, I do not like horror as a genre. Because of that, I don’t have an interest in playing Hands Over. However, this is a list of my favorite announcements, not necessarily the games I will play or even want to play. I have always wished that I enjoyed horror more. And Hands Over is the type of game that exacerbates that desire. It looks incredibly fun and unique. In another world, I would love to play this with some friends and laugh at the horror tropes. Alas, I will have to admire this one from afar.
Bancho the Chef
Actually making sushi is the only bit of simulation gameplay I felt missing from Dave the Diver. Now, a prequel where I get to do just that leaves me with little to complain about from developer MINTROCKET. Bancho embodies coolness and intense passion in such a humorous way that a full spinoff game dedicated to him makes a lot of sense. If in some parallel universe somewhere had accurately polled Dave the Diver owners to ask who their favorite character was from the game, I would firmly expect Bancho to be at the top of the results. He has a deadpan humor that hits just right in a game that otherwise gives its characters goofier tones.
Until Dawn 2
This one knocked me on my rear end. Through the whole trailer, I thought to myself, “This is clearly inspired by and reminiscent of Until Dawn.“ Little did I know, Until Dawn 2 would grace the screen at the very end.
I do not like horror as a genre in books, movies, shows, or games. The closest I’ve come to enjoying the genre is the occasional thriller (Hereditary, for example) and true crime. However, there’s something about the slasher style of Until Dawn mixed with its choice-based, mystery, narrative adventure that speaks to me. I never actually played it, but I watched playthroughs of it extensively on YouTube back in the day. Now, at a more mature age with a more mature wallet, I can see myself picking up the sequel. in fact, I’m even excited for it.
God of War Laufey
I can’t believe the divisiveness of the God of War Laufey announcement. I’ve seen/heard complaints that the game is too woke for people because it has a female protagonist (what is the world coming to?), the game betrays the God of War franchise name by not having Kratos as the main character, and that the game simply looked “meh.”
I don’t even fully know how to respond to these types of criticisms. The gameplay and enemies looked fresh, the graphical fidelity looked better than ever, the characters intrigued me, the narrative takes an unexpected form, and it still has all of the hallmarks of a modern God of War title. What else could everyone possibly want? I want my hands on the game.
New Cuphead
I have a certain reputation for getting into amazing pieces of media well after they have firmly established themselves and their audiences. To stay true to that annoying aspect of myself, I finally got around to Cuphead in 2025 and 2026. I’ve nearly completed The Delicious Last Course DLC.
Through my time playing the game, one question kept nagging at me: what is Studio MDHR up to? We’re four years removed from the release of The Delicious Last Course and nearly nine years from the initial release of the base game. Since then, it’s been silence. This year, MDHR fired off a quirky announcement that a new Cuphead title is somewhere on the horizon.
Cuphead grinds your resolve into dust, but MDHR refined the mechanics and gameplay loop so well that the player never has an opportunity to feel bored. So many boss-filled games have an irritating habit of forcing the player to fight through low-level enemies or go long distances just to get back to a boss battle and die within 20 seconds. Cuphead streamlines the whole experience, making the game about the boss battles and nothing else. You couldn’t beat the boss? Simply try again. All games should be that simple.
I’m anxious to see what Studio MDHR is cooking up. Unfortunately, I fear that I’ll be wondering about that for a long time before we hear anything else.
Crossfire
I heard of That’s No Moon a couple of years ago, and their self-proclaimed focus on blending gameplay with narrative really spoke to me. Now, I finally got a glimpse of what their staff of over 150 people has poured that time into. Crossfire, in my opinion, appears to be Call of Duty/Battlefield with better writing and no bullshit. As someone who for years purchased Call of Duty titles exclusively to play the campaigns, I can’t help but feel that Crossfire is tailor-made for me. It appears action-packed with sci-fi, military theme. From the trailer, I don’t get the sense that it does anything spectacularly new in terms of mechanics, but the story-driven gameplay is enough of a hook for its genre that it gets me in the door.
Last Harbor
My best read on Last Harbor is Raft in a zombie-infested world. It addresses one of the primary arguments associated with monster-filled, post-apocalyptic living; why not take a boat out on the water and live a life at sea? The counterargument is always that you’d have to come back to shore sometime. Whether it be for fuel, medical, or other supplies, you’ll have to set foot on land eventually.
I can stomach zombies despite my aversion to horror. I’ve enjoyed The Walking Dead (show and games) and The Last of Us. I find The Dead Don’t Die to be a fantastic movie. I’ve given Dying Light and Dead Island 2 a try. I think the zombie idea has gotten so played out that it doesn’t even register as a horror trope anymore.
So a combination of zombie survival and life-sim gameplay seems to me like a good time.
The Wolf Among Us Remastered
I had heard rumblings that The Wolf Among Us would receive attention at SGF this year. However, I assumed that meant the highly anticipated sequel. I did not expect a remaster of the first game, and I can’t wait to get it. It’s been so long since I played the original. I’m ready to go into it fresh and reexperience the fantasy detective adventure. While it’s not something new, it’s been so long that it may as well be.
Apple Crumble
Apple Crumble appeared in multiple showcases this year. I’m intrigued by the premise and the development team. Previously, Happy Broccoli Games treated us with Kraken Academy followed by a unique take on detective stories with the Duck Detective series. Apple Crumble clearly embraces a similar tone while opting for a different perspective, a more tried and true detective setting (a single house of suspects), and a completely different artistic style. If they can capture the quick and delightful experience of Duck Detective, Apple Crumble will succeed, and I intend to be there for it.
Detective Turner: If Looks Could Kill
From one detective game to another. In contrast to Apple Crumble, Detective Turner: If Looks Could Kill adopts a more serious tone and darker mood. The gameplay truly captivated me. People talk a lot about environmental storytelling in video games, but usually that’s not literal. However, in Detective Turner, the environment literally does tell the story through props that are comprised on words. Clicking through text is how the player navigates the story, interacting with the literal words on screen in a sort of streamlined homage to older adventure games where the game would present a description of the scene and the player had to type commands to explore the different described items.
The Hearth and Harbour
A game that has me written all over it. When management and simulation games reach for a compelling narrative and vibrant characters, I get excited. The Hearth and Harbour was revealed back in September, 2025, but I must have been asleep at the wheel. In this year’s SGF, we got a developer update going deeper into what we can expect from the game. I love games where I can run my own restaurant, and I think The Hearth and Harbour has what I crave.
Exodus
I really loved getting a deeper glimpse into the gameplay of Exodus. As time goes on, I don’t think much about Exodus. Whenever I learn more about it, though, my fire is reignited. I’m a little concerned that the heavy lean on the original Mass Effect trilogy is blinding me, though. Nothing about the gameplay feels particularly innovative or unique.
However, I’m starved by the 14-year gap since the last decent Mass Effect entry. BioWare seems to be taking their time with the next installment of the franchise, and I frankly don’t trust the company the way I once did after Mass Effect: Andromeda, Anthem, and Dragon Age: The Veilguard. No other developer has managed to step in and fill the sci-fi, space-adventure void in that time either. So I have no choice but to feel optimistic given the old BioWare pedigree on this project that includes Drew Karpyshyn, writer of the first two Mass Effect games and a quality trilogy of Mass Effect novels.
Magicians: The Devil’s Deal
What an interesting game. For the billionth time this post, I am not a horror fan. Although, maybe at this point in writing this, I’ve convinced myself that I have a bigger appetite for horror than I thought. Magicians: The Devil’s Deal appears to me to have a bit of a horror backbone. What may get me past that, though, is the fascinating gameplay ideas that the trailer showcased.
In this world, magic is real, and as a dead magician, you have to make a deal with the Devil to escape Hell using your magic abilities. The classic magicians’ tricks are turned into weapons for fighting off demons in this game, and by god, it’s flashy and satisfying. I always marvel at the ability of developers to come up with new forms of first-person combat. Shooting a gun and swinging a sword have gotten boring. I want a game that can let me wield something else. Magicians: The Devil’s Deal has that in spades.
Persona 6
What a way to end SGF! A teaser for Persona 6 leaves me hollow inside. On one hand, I want my hands on it so badly. On the other, I know that with just a simple teaser, I’m probably in for an agonizing wait.