October 2026 Game Releases: Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:00] Seasons, creepings, boys and ghouls, October is upon us, and with it, amidst the jack-o'-lanterns, state cobwebs, and animatronic 12-foot-tall skeletons, are dozens, if not hundreds, of brand new video games, and I'm here to tell you all about some of them.

[00:13] Here are October 2026's biggest game releases. As always, the usual disclaimer, we do our very best to make these videos accurate and

[00:25] up-to-date, but release dates tend to change at the last minute, and occasionally a game or two slips between the cracks under the radar or falls behind the couch. And that disclaimer is doing some heavy lifting this month because there were just simply too

[00:37] many games coming out to get them all into one episode, and we also had a few other curveballs to deal with, which I'll get to later. But as always, we did our very best, so please be kind, and if you want to stay up to date, check out IGN.com slash upcoming

[00:49] and get that IGN playlist app. It's pretty cool. On the first Ghost of Yotei gets a double dose of DLC. There's the story-based Echoes of Sekigahara, which adds a whole new area to explore, and bunch of new story stuff, and there's also the roguelike Most Wanted mode, which sees

[01:02] the return of Jin Sakai as a playable character that is exclusively on PS5 as part of the complete edition, or as a $15 upgrade for anybody who already owns the game. If that's not enough slicing and dicing for you, there's also Dynasty Warriors 3 Remastered

[01:16] on current-gen and PC, which is a full overhaul of the 25-year-old Musou classic that rolls up the base game, together with the Extreme Legends expansion. If you want something a little spookier, you've got some options. There's End of Abyss, the creepy-looking, top-down, atmospheric sci-fi survival horror,

[01:31] which looks like it'll sit well with fans of Limbo, Inside, and Little Nightmares. That one's on Xbox Series, PS5, and PC. Slightly more colorful but still creepy is Retro Space, which, as the name suggests, is retro and also in space, but as the name does not suggest,

[01:46] you can grab it on all the current-gen consoles as well as PC. On the second, you can take a highway to the danger zone, spread your mighty wings, and spend some hot summer nights playing with the boys in Ace Combat 8 Wings of Speed,

[01:58] the latest in Bandai Namco's long-running arcadey fighter pilot sim, which has some visuals that'll take your breath away. And yes, I just name-dropped five songs from the Top Gun soundtrack. That's right, Iceman. I'm the owner.

[02:10] In any case, the last game had awesome graphics, but it still got roasted online for one infamous cutscene featuring the JPEG dog, which was, fun fact, actually a video of a live dog that was just sitting perfectly still. But in any case, I feel like the devs had something to prove, and this game is stunning to look at,

[02:25] from high-speed dogfights all the way down to the low-speed dogfights. That one's on Xbox Series, PS5, and PC. If you would prefer to take flight in the musical fantasy realm, the gorgeous open-world MMORPG Aeon II launches into early access on the 5th,

[02:40] and if you're one of those people who gets obsessive with character creators, it might take you a while to get to the actual game, because this has a really nice character creator. October 6th is already National Coaches Day, National Noodle Day, National Orange Wine Day, and National Badger Day,

[02:53] but this year it is also E-Day for the Gears of War fans. Along the way to the 6th mainline entry, the beloved shooter series drops finally, which is in fact a prequel showing how everything got so messed up that they had to invent guns with chainsaws on them.

[03:06] That one's on Xbox Series and 2C. Still that day, if you would prefer Wars of Stars to Gears of War, Star Wars Galactic Racer is here. here. Actually, it's speeder racing.

[03:21] As you'll recall, pod racers are so fast that barely anyone can pilot them unless they have four arms like Gasgano or 27,700 midi-chlorians like Anakin Skywalker. So this does have some pod racing in it, but it's largely focused on racing land speeders,

[03:34] skim speeders, and speeder bikes. Developed by the folks who gave us Burnout and Need for Speed, but it's also got some Motorstorm DNA, so sign me up, Danny Farrick. ones on Xbox Series, PS5, and PC.

[03:46] On October 8th, if you're a fan of Rubik's Cubes and beating the FM, you'll find yourself in good company in Clive Barker's Hellraiser Revival. This narrative first-person survival horror will have you swearing off against Pinhead and his coterie as interdimensional perverts, not to King's shame, as well as solving some

[04:01] mind-bending puzzles. I got super into Clive Barker earlier this year after never having given him a shot because he just seemed like a hornier, edgier Neil Gaiman, but he's a blast, and if you're looking for some supremely fun, very f***ed up reading material. I cannot recommend his short story collection The Books of Blood enough Anyway Clive Barker Hellraiser Revival is on Xbox Series PS5 and PC and Clive Barker The Books of Blood is on Kindle Libby Audible and also actual paper

[04:24] and wherever the other books are. If you prefer some more family-friendly fare that also involves interdimensional weirdos wearing outfits with way too many straps and chains, a bunch of Kingdom Hearts games are coming to Switch 2 that day as well.

[04:36] How many? Well, by my math, when you count all the decimal points in the title, 10.8 of them. But it also might just be the original trilogy as a bundle, and then each game available piecemeal as the final chapter remixed prologue version.

[04:48] I don't know. I'm going to let you figure that out. If you can figure out the titles of Kingdom Hearts games, you can probably figure out whatever the f*** those games are about. I don't know. Apparently Donald Duck is overpowered. Who could have possibly anticipated that?

[05:04] If Kingdom Hearts naming conventions are too easy for you, well, smarty pants, that interdimensional weirdo game designer known as Jonathan Blow, who gave us Braid and The Witness, is back with Order of the Stinking Star, a new game that promises 1,000 handcrafted puzzles for you to solve.

[05:19] That probably sounds appealing to some folks, but I have thousands of daily reminders that I'm stupid and bad at things already, and I don't need a thousand more, thank you very much. Stay away from me, Jonathan Blow. That one's on PC, PS5, and Switch, too.

[05:32] Still that day, if you'd like to wander an unforgiving land roving with enormous beasts and formidable monsters, you've got a couple options. There's Dragon's Dogma 2, darker ribs and the expanded version 1.5 of Capcom's idiosyncratic but excellent action RPG,

[05:46] which is now on PC and all current-gen consoles, including Switch 2. Meanwhile, if you want to wander a considerably more forgiving neighborhood that's still roving with enormous beasts and formidable monsters, Stephanie Street's friends and fun hits both the PlayStation, Series X, Switch 1, and PC.

[06:01] October 13th, there's the gorgeous, spooky, hand-painted point-and-click Ilo Gloom on PC and the co-op survival Metroidvania deep dish dungeon on PC as well as Xbox Series. If you're jonesing for a new spin on the Souls-like formula,

[06:15] Regardez Valor Mortis. It's a first-person take on the genre set during a horrific and fantastical version of Napoleon's Reign. This is from the studio that gave us the very good Ghostrunner games, which were also doing crazy stuff in first person.

[06:27] And by the way, Napoleon is voiced by Vincent Cassell, who starred in Brotherhood of the Wolf, which is the closest thing we have to a Bloodborne movie for the time being. that's on Xbox Series, PS5, and PC. Valor Mortis, I mean.

[06:39] Though you can also use those devices to watch Brotherhood of the Wolves. Just saying. If you're more into Emperors of an Intergalactic variety, on October 14th, there's Warhammer 40K Boltgun 2, and if you're having a hard time keeping track of Warhammer games

[06:52] since a new one comes out about every 10 business days, this is the crunchy boomer shooter with a protagonist voice by card-carrying Warhammer dork Raul Coley, who you may also know from Sarrows, Anti-Zombie, and the Mike Flanagan Flanagatic Microverse.

[07:04] That is on Xbox Series, PS5, and PC. On October 15th, somehow early on the 15th, you can enjoy a succulent feast of wall chicken and whippet good in Castlevania Belmont's Curse, which comes courtesy of the developers behind Dead Cells

[07:17] tackling Konami's genre-defining Metroidvania series, Hold the Metroids. That's on current-gen and PC. Still That Day to Co-op, survival crafting action RPG, Unshrouded leaves early access on PC and launches on PS5.

[07:30] Meanwhile, just on PC, We Are So Cooked is a slapstick co-op physics-based stealth games that'll have you and up to three friends doing your best to cover up an allegedly accidental murder. And last but not least, if you want to revisit Buzz and Woody's

[07:43] various video game outings, Toy Story Retro Roundup and Toy Story 3 Complete Edition dump out Andy's whole toy box on practically every gaming device currently on the market. You know, aside from those no-good tablets, which according to Toy Story 5 will not only rot your children's

[07:57] brains, they'll also steal their identities and put them on blast in the group chat. On October 16th, PC players get Sound System, which looks like it'll pull some former guitar heroes way out of retirement. There's also Tenebris Somnia, a game I've been dying to check out,

[08:11] because it's a survival horror with retro 2D gameplay, but then some terrifying live-action cutscenes with gorgeous practical effects. That one is on basically everything. On October 20th, there's Star Trek Outposts Unknown on PC,

[08:23] a narrative-driven city builder that lets you boldly build cities where no one has before, I think. and also Stupid Never Dies a wacky roguelike action RPG with big lollipop chainsaw energy which is on PC as well as PS5 On October 22nd Final Fantasy Resonance adapts the first story arc of the free 2015

[08:42] mobile game Brave Exvius, strips it of microtransactions, and retools it as a bona fide full-size HD 2D RPG that you pay for with money the old-fashioned way, and can also summon Sephiroth in because

[08:54] why not? That one's on both Switches, the other newer consoles, and PC. If you fantasize about going to an island where people engage in competitive thumb wrestling, well, that's kind of weird sometimes. Very capable robots.

[09:07] But you're in luck, because Nintendo Switch Sports Resort sends players back to Woohoo Island for thumb wrestling and a bevy of other party games that'll make full use out of those little Joy-Con accelerometers. Time to push that coffee table out of the way and break some more of Mom's Lamp, exclusively on Switch 2.

[09:22] On October 23rd, 2026, Call of Duty Mired Warfare 4 is out. not to be confused with Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare, which came out 18 years, 11 months, and 18 days prior. Personally, I think they should have called it Modern Warfare,

[09:35] or perhaps Modern War 4, but nobody listens to me. Anyway, in case you're still listening to me for some reason, that's on current-gen NPCs. You still listening? Well, still that day, if you've always wanted a video game

[09:47] based on the FX original series, The Bear, that follows Carby, Sidney, Cousin Richie, Fac, and the rest of the kitchen staff as they sail the high seas in search of treasure, I regret to inform, there is no game like that currently.

[09:59] However, there is the exact inverse. One Piece Grand Gourmet is a game starring Monkey D. Luffy and 400 other characters from the beloved manga turned anime in which you manage a restaurant, which makes as little sense as a game based on the bear where you're a pirate.

[10:13] Anyway, that's on both Switches, PC, and mobile. On October 27th, you and up to nine friends can play Mimic on PC, but be forewarned, one of them is secretly an enemy hiding among you. Or as I might say if I was playing the game with you, among us.

[10:28] Hmm? Hmm? Also that day, also on PC, there is the early access launch of Emberville, which looks equal parts Stardew Valley and Diablo, which features a stacked voice cast, including the voices of other video game characters,

[10:42] such as Geralt of Rivia, Leon F. Kennedy, Eric Gainsborough, Bayak of Sua, Shadowheart, Adam Jensen, and Ben Starr, who voices most other video game characters whose names I didn't already list.

[10:54] If you want something spookier, there's Remothered Red Nun's Legacy, the third entry in the survival horror series that kicked off back in 2018, which I've somehow repeatedly forgotten exists. The first one was apparently pretty good, while the sequel, Broken Porcelain,

[11:07] was not received as well, so no telling what is in store for this one, but it's on current-gen and PC. If you want more of a sure thing, they'll also have you solving some macabre puzzles. There's also The Seance of Blake Manor, a cool cel-shaded mystery adventure.

[11:20] I believe there are still phantasms involved, but they don't seem quite so scary, or at least not as scary as the time management mechanic in this game. This one made a lot of best-of lists when it landed on PC last year, and now people with current-gen consoles can find out what the big deal is.

[11:35] Another spooky game dropping that day is Village in the Shade, which is a nice cozy life management sim, assuming you follow a set of rules. Apparently, if you break the rules, you'll see a darker side of the village, and I'm curious if it is actually possible to play this game straight

[11:47] and just do the cozy stuff, or if that locks you out of the actual game. Funny story, when I played Skardu Valley, I somehow missed whatever part of the tutorial told you to go to the mines and fight monsters and mine stuff to get necessary crafting material,

[12:00] so I spent like 10 hours as this idiot dirt farmer with a wooden shovel just watering dead plants and sitting around, thinking it was a really hard game and I was just bad at it, but then someone told me that yeah, I was bad at it, but because I was completely doing it wrong, and then I had this existential crisis,

[12:14] because, like, what other extremely basic skills or pieces of information have I missed in real life that have prevented me from being a more successful adult? It's one thing to know you're bad at something, it's something else entirely to be completely ignorant to the fact

[12:27] that it's something you should be attempting to do in the first place. Anyway, Village in the Shade is on both Switches, PS5, and PC. The novelist is also a nice little slice of life game, if you want to be part of a life that involves fighting monsters

[12:40] hiding in a bunch of liminal spaces that look like Showa era Japan so that you can scavenge materials to improve your ability to shoot said monsters, that one on both the PlayStation Switch 2 and PC If you like to hang around in Japan without having to farm vegetables or shoot monsters there Danshi Days on the 29th which describes itself as a neighbor where you play as a

[12:58] 12-year-old in the early 2000s trying to organize a summer festival, but also your mom had dementia, just to keep it from being too cozy. That one's on PC for now. If you want to waste 50 bucks, literally and fiduciarily, look

[13:10] no further than Hunting Simulator 3, or if you're pronouncing it phonetically based on the logo, Hunting 3 Simulator, which is on Xbox Series PS5 and PC. And considering the size of the literal game

[13:22] within this game, I think this is technically the biggest game release in this list of big game releases, because there's big game they've released, and then there's open world. And you get to walk around and look at their feces and follow them in the grass, and then shoot

[13:34] them. You're probably going to miss, though, because it's like a realistic game. It's not like Big Buck Hunter. That's how you waste 50 bucks. By putting 50 bucks into that game and losing at it. Unless you play the Terminator version, because they don't have beer in that one, I don't think.

[13:47] If you'd rather deal with big bad wolves of another type, the Wolf Among Us remastered is out that day as well, and at this point it's probably a good idea that they re-release the original ahead of that sequel that was announced way back in 2019, which is somehow

[14:00] still in development. The remaster is playable on everything but PS4. English paleontologist Sir Richard Owen coined the term Dynastoria in 1841 from the ancient Greek, Dinos, meaning terrible, and Soros, meaning lizard, and I'm guessing that's why

[14:15] the game Terrible Lizards is about surviving scary mutant dinosaur-like creatures, as well as equally scary cartoon dinosaur mascots, evading them with the use of parkour. I think Terrible Lizards is a great title, but Jurassic Parkour would have probably worked here, too.

[14:35] Anyway, that one is on Xbox Series, PS5, and PC. Last but not least, there is Phantom Blade Zero, which despite not being the soul's life, features a protagonist named Soul as he tries to prove his innocence after being framed

[14:48] for killing his master by killing a bunch of other people, I guess. And also, he has to find a new heart because he suffered a serious wound to his old heart. And I'm not a cardiologist, but I would probably recommend against the level of strenuous activity

[15:01] he appears to be engaged in for most of this game's playtime. and, you know, unless you got that situation resolved, or, you know, if it's magic. It's probably magic. I'm guessing it's magic. You can feel the magic for yourself when Phantom Blade Zero comes out on PS5 and PC,

[15:15] and that is the last game on this list. Well, folks, we did it. A big, huge pile of games coming out in October that is, unfortunately, but a fraction of the larger pile that is all of the games coming out in October.

[15:27] Like I said, this is nowhere near all of them, so if I missed anything good, please, please shout it out in the comments below and tell everyone why it's worth checking out. Give us an elevator pitch for it. I'd love to hear a good short description for a game.

[15:39] What's the big deal? How would you describe it? Now, normally here's where I would say, I'll see you next month. However, due to recent restructuring across IG and Entertainment, my time hosting is coming to an end, so while this video series might continue in some form,

[15:52] this is my last time working on it. I say this every episode, but I really mean it this time around. a big, huge thanks to Amanda Medina, Crystal Padre, Logan Plant, for making these videos happen and for making the process of making them a delight.

[16:05] More importantly, a big, huge Boo Saga ending spirit bomb-sized thank you to everyone who took the time to watch these videos every month, especially those of you who left nice comments, and double especially those of you who came up to me at events and told it to my face.

[16:18] If IGN keeps this series going with somebody else on camera, please, please extend to them the same kindness and courtesy you've shown me. Hard to make videos. Hard to put yourself out there. Sometimes it sucks, and people can be really, really mean. It's very easy to be mean if you just have, like, a little picture of your face

[16:32] and then a fake name you made up. You can write whatever you want in there, and it doesn't, it's different, and you have to read it. And hey, if you want to keep up with whatever's next for me, give me a follow on Instagram or Threads or Blue Sky or wherever else you can find me. I don't post a ton, and when I do, it's usually a fun doodle like this

[16:47] or a mutant degenerate Pomeranian like this. Thank you again. I love you all. I'll see you later. Say goodbye, Truffle. How f***ing terrifying would it be if he just spoke English? Can you speak?

[17:01] Yeah, it's not easy, is it, getting on camera? Acting natural. Not kissing on the carpet.