It is that faithful time of year once again, where we are blessed with a deluge of new game announcements and release date reveals for existing projects. No matter how old I get, this week in June absorbs all of my attention while filling me with unbridled excitement. As I have done for a few years (first time on this blog) I will list everything I am excited for, ranked with sparse additional commentary. You are here for a curated list of the good stuff; trailers and not so much my two cents.

This year, I am structuring things a little differently. Inspired by the concept and the Vergecast revitalization of the word “vaporware”, I am grouping the list based on when or in some cases if these games are supposed to release. I personally do not like paying to play games that are incomplete so Steam Early Access launch dates are not considered a release date for these lists.

This list is not exhaustive, it is basically peering into my Steam Wishlist with a little more structure. You will likely be able to see my clear bias towards certain genres and platforms.

Showcase Thoughts

This year the SGF and PC Gaming Showcase felt especially weak with very little new that grabbed my attention. There were a few big wins in there but I still would not bother watching them outside of a heavy ingrained personal interest in showcases. Meanwhile, the LAGS (Latin American Games Showcase) punched way above its weight class. Several games on the list below came from LAGS. Nintendo did what Nintendo does, living in their own world but dropping a couple unexpected annoucements like Kingdom Hearts IV. Only one game from that showcase made it on this list, but there were a couple I was on the fence with. Xbox and PlayStation each had very solid showings, but as the list will demonstrate, my bias is toward Xbox having much more of what I am interested in playing over the next six months.

Imminent

These are the games that you will actually be able to play within six or seven months. They are the ones that deserve most of your attention especially as they are the last games to release before we live in a world where GTA 6 exists. You will notice there is an absolute void around November, the presumed release date of GTA.

I do not intend to update this blog, but it is safe to assume that when the GTA date drops, many dates might shift deeper into October if GTA ends up being late in November.

Coming Soon(ish)

Here we have the games that I have no reason to think They will miss their suggested window, but in truth I have no idea. Many of them actually have 2026 release windows, but not an exact date. That gives me the impression the developer is still going on vibes to when the game will be done.

Basically Vaporware

Let’s be clear here, these games are either so far away they are barely worth thinking about, or worse they do not even really exist yet in any meaningful sense. A couple in here do have tighter release windows, but my personal experience suggests that the likelihood they land them is iffy, so they get stuck in here all the same.

Don’t get me wrong, a couple of these I am really excited for but we have too much to play in the mean time to be focused in on any of these.