Gamescom 2026: When Is Gamescom and How to Watch Opening Night Live

Polygon RSS Feed✍ Michael McWhertor📅 August 24, 2026⏱ 3 min read(about 1 hour ago)

Overview & Key Takeaways

Gaming's biggest convention, Gamescom , returns on Aug. 25 with Opening Night Live, the Geoff Keighley hosted games showcase and news event.

Gaming's biggest convention is back. This week, Gamescom 2026 kicks off in Cologne, Germany with an Opening Night Live showcase followed by a week of show-floor demos and events. Polygon will be in attendance at Gamescom this year, but gaming fans far and wide will be able to enjoy this year's show from home, thanks to multiple streams and showcases.

Gamescom officially starts on Wednesday, but the show truly kicks off on Tuesday with Gamescom Opening Night Live, a showcase hosted by The Game Awards emcee Geoff Keighley. Some of the biggest publishers and developers in gaming, including Bandai Namco, Capcom, CD Projekt Red, Nintendo, Sega, Ubisoft, and Xbox, will be at Gamescom 2026, will be on hand to show off what's new and what's next.

As always, The Game Awards, Summer Game Fest, and Gamescom ONL favorite Hideo Kojima could also show up. It's been a while since we've heard anything new about Kojima Productions' new horror game OD.

Here's what you need to know about this year's Gamescom.

A photo of the Kolnmesse convention center from Gamescom 2016 Photo: Gamescom

Gamescom 2026 officially starts on Wednesday, Aug. 26 and runs through Sunday, Aug. 30. The event itself is held at the Koelnmesse in Cologne and draws a huge crowd. Organizers say that 357,000 visitors from 128 countries attended last year's Gamescom.

This year's Gamescom will feature the following featured exhibitors:

4Divinity
Astrogon
Asus
Bandai Namco
Bohemia Interactive
Capcom
Crytek
Electronic Arts
Embark Studios
Everstone Studio
Focus Entertainment
Funcom
Gryphline
Hoyoverse
Konami
Krafton
Level Infinite
NetEase Games
Nintendo
Paradox Interactive
Remedy
Samsung
Sega
Team 17
Tencent Games
Ubisoft
Xbox

This year’s Gamescom Opening Night Live will stream on Tuesday, Aug. 25, starting at 2 p.m. EDT/11 a.m. PDT. Gamescom ONL can be watched on YouTube and Twitch, via the following channels:

Some of the games confirmed to appear during Gamescom Opening Night Live include Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, Game of Thrones: War for Westeros, Gears of War: E-Day, Metro 2039, Monster Hunter Outlanders, Silent: Hill Downfall, The Witcher 3: Songs of the Past, Valor Mortis, and Warlock: Dungeons & Dragons.

Gamescom Opening Night Live is expected to run two hours.

Xbox Series X controller Photo: Fabian Sommer/picture alliance via Getty Images

Amid a tough year for the Xbox brand, Microsoft is going all in on Gamescom 2026. At this year's event, Xbox will feature games like Sega and Creative Assembly's Alien Isolation 2, Playground Games' Fable, and RGG Studio's Stranger Than Heaven, plus Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, Gears of War: E-Day, Minecraft Dungeons 2, Metro 2039, The Blood of Dawnwalker, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse, and Valor Mortis. There's even a rumor that we might get a new Ori game at Gamescom.

Xbox will be streaming its own broadcasts from the Gamescom show floor, with two days of programming planned for Wednesday and Thursday. You can watch them below.

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More in Xbox, Multi-platform

🎮 PlayStation, Xbox, Multi-platform

A Day One Console Patch Will Make The Blood Of Dawnwalker Run At 60 FPS

!Game Informer News(https://gameinformer.com/sites/default/files/styles/bodydefault/public/2026/08/24/506a7a06/thebloodofdawnwalker-everythingyouneedtoknow0-40screenshot.jpg.webp) Rebel Wolves, developers of The Blood of Dawnwalker, put out a trailer last week(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K86Af9y312U&pp=ygUXdGhlIGJsb29kIG9mIGRhd253YWxrZXI%3D) showing off console gameplay of their upcoming action role-playing adventure, but the new footage ended up backfiring. The video revealed that PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game would not be able to run at 60 frames per second, instead targeting 40, which frustrated many, as 60 frames is considered the standard for action games like this. Today, developer Rebel Wolves issued a new announcement(https://x.com/DawnwalkerGame/status/2091812822082580778?s=20): The Blood of Dawnwalker will run at 60 fps after all, thanks to a day one patch coming to consoles. "Performance Mode was already in the works, but it was still being tested," a post on the official Dawnwalker social media pages reads. "We simply weren’t ready to promise it yet. We heard your feedback. It was clear how much this mattered to many of you, so we focused on finishing the next round of tests. Those results gave us the confidence we needed to confirm Performance Mode for Day 1." The developers go on to state that the patch will now allow the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game to target 60 fps in Performance Mode, 40 fps in Balanced Mode, and 30 FPS in Quality Mode. The PS5 Pro version of the game will include "overall visual enhancements," though Rebel Wolves doesn't elaborate exactly on what that means. Finally, the less-powerful Xbox Series S will be stuck at 30 FPS. Personally, I hope Rebel Wolves succeeds on this day one patch, though I do find it surprising that it expects to turn this around by September 3, the game's release date – it seems like a tall ask in a short window. Still, I (and most everyone else, I assume) would prefer to play The Blood of Dawnwalker at 60 FPS, so I'm looking forward to seeing the studio pull it off. Rebel Wolves was founded by developers who formerly worked at CD Projekt Red on beloved games like The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, so the hype around its upcoming project is substantial, even alongside the fall's other major releases. For more on The Blood of Dawnwalker, subscribers can check out our exclusive cover story(https://gameinformer.com/feature/2026/05/12/the-blood-of-dawnwalker-baring-its-fangs) from a few issues ago, and all readers can check out our suite of follow-up coverage(https://gameinformer.com/dawnwalker).

🎮 A Day One Console

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