Top 10 Upcoming Game Releases of October 2026

Crazy to think we are already talking about October, but here we are on the horizon of the month just before Grand Theft Auto VI is finally supposed to arrive on November 19.

Before the entire gaming world shuts down for GTA VI, though, we have October to get through.

And October 2026 is... interesting.

There are a few promising titles here, but nothing I would call an absolute must-have across the board. There are, however, a couple that are teetering right on the fence between slam dunk and why bother. We've got a new Gears, a new Castlevania, Final Fantasy, Star Wars racing, Hellraiser, Warhammer, a Napoleon-era Soulslike, and a few games that could come out of nowhere.

So, in no particular order other than when you can actually play them, here are ten October releases worth keeping an eye on.

And yes.

There are eleven.

It wouldn't be a Goose's Top 10 without an 11th entry plus more.

End of Abyss — October 1

End of Abyss is promising, but it isn't one of those potential slam dunks for me.

It's a top-down 3D twin-stick shooter with Metroidvania elements from Section 9 Interactive. You play as Cel, a combat technician sent into a massive underground facility where things have apparently gone horribly wrong. You're exploring abandoned areas, fighting creatures, upgrading equipment, unlocking new paths, and gradually figuring out what happened down there.

These types of top-down games aren't really my cup of tea, but I can understand why a lot of people are going to be in on this one. More importantly, End of Abyss looks incredibly well done. The atmosphere is dark, the lighting looks great, and the whole thing has this uncomfortable sci-fi horror feel to it.

Gears of War: E-Day — October 6

Gears of War: E-Day, on the other hand, brings back a younger version of myself.

This isn't a remake of the original Gears, but it does take us back to where everything started. E-Day takes place 14 years before the original Gears of War and follows younger versions of Marcus Fenix and Dom Santiago as the Locust Horde first erupts from underground on Emergence Day.

Gears was one of those defining Xbox franchises for me and going back to Marcus and Dom while showing us the actual beginning of the Locust War feels like exactly the kind of prequel that could for sure be teetering on slam dunk and something less than. From what we've seen, it looks like a pretty solid one. 

Premium Edition owners can start playing October 1, while the actual worldwide release is October 6. It's also launching day one through Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

AION 2 — October 5

Then we have AION 2, which is a completely different animal. This is the kind of game that some will not bother, but some will absolutely love. 

NC's follow-up to AION is a free-to-play MMORPG built in Unreal Engine 5, with a world the developer says is 36 times larger than the original. Flying is once again a huge part of the game, along with faction warfare, PvE, PvP, exploration, crafting and all of the other things that can either make an MMO consume six months of your life or make you uninstall it three days later.

MMOs are always difficult to judge before the community actually gets its hands on them. You can have the biggest world imaginable and it doesn't mean much if nobody wants to live in it.

Still, AION has history behind it, and AION 2 looks ambitious enough to deserve some attention.

It releases on PC October 5.

Star Wars: Galactic Racer — October 6

Star Wars: Galactic Racer is another entry into the Star Wars universe that some people are absolutely thrilled about and others probably haven't even batted an eye at.

Even within the Star Wars fandom.

The easiest explanation is that we're finally getting another proper Star Wars racing game. Galactic Racer takes place after the fall of the Empire and revolves around an underground racing league where you'll pilot landspeeders, speeder bikes, skim speeders and podracers.

There's a singleplayer campaign along with competitive multiplayer, and the campaign looks pretty good. 

I have no idea if this thing is going to be incredible or something we all forget existed six months later. But give me a podracer, I want to find out.

Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival — October 8

Now things get weird.

Clive Barker's Hellraiser: Revival is being developed by Saber Interactive, a studio with a pretty interesting résumé that includes games like Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, World War Z, and SnowRunner. In case you were unfamiliar.

Revival is a singleplayer survival-horror game built around the Hellraiser universe, with Clive Barker himself involved and Doug Bradley returning as Pinhead. You play as Aidan, who is trying to rescue his girlfriend Sunny from the Cenobites while dealing with the kind of body horror you'd expect from something carrying the Hellraiser name.

There's combat, stealth, crafting, puzzles and the infamous puzzle box itself worked into the gameplay.

We'll find out October 8.

Valor Mortis — October 13

Valor Mortis might be the weirdest concept on this entire list, and I mean that as a compliment.

You are a soldier in Napoleon's Grande Armée. You died. Then you came back.

Now Europe is being consumed by a supernatural plague, Napoleon's Eternal Guard is filled with horrible mutated creatures, and you're fighting your way through an alternate version of the 19th century while slowly gaining supernatural abilities yourself.

Oh, and it's a first-person Soulslike from the developers behind Ghostrunner.

Which has my attention.

Parrying, guns, swords, monsters, Napoleon and Soulslike combat is a combination of words I don't think I've ever put together before.

Valor Mortis releases October 13.

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 — October 14

Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 looks like a world of fun if you're into the current revival of games that intentionally look like they escaped from somebody's Windows 95 computer.

And I mean that in the best possible way.

The original Boltgun took Warhammer 40K, shoved it into a retro boomer-shooter, cranked up the speed, filled the screen with enemies and basically asked one question:

What if Space Marine, but DOOM?

Boltgun 2 is giving us more of that. More pixelated violence, more Chaos, more ridiculous weapons and more running around as a Space Marine turning everything unfortunate enough to stand in front of you into paste.

Sometimes a game doesn't need to reinvent anything.

Sometimes it just needs a really big gun.

October 14.

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse — October 15

Castlevania: Belmont's Curse is probably one of the most interesting releases of the month, and if the name Castlevania doesn't mean much to you, this one might simply be before your time.

For everybody else, this is a pretty big deal.

Belmont's Curse takes place 23 years after Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse and follows Rose Belmont, daughter of Trevor Belmont. It's a new 2D action-exploration game developed by Konami, Evil Empire and Motion Twin, with faster movement and a system where defeated bosses can become Arcana cards that give Rose additional abilities.

That combination of developers alone is enough to make this interesting.

It looks old-school without looking old, which is probably exactly where a new 2D Castlevania needs to land.

October 15.

Final Fantasy Resonance — October 22

Then Square Enix comes strolling into October with Final Fantasy Resonance.

And this one looks gorgeous.

Resonance is the first Final Fantasy to use Square Enix's HD-2D style, combining pixel-art characters and environments with modern lighting, effects and 3D presentation. More importantly for longtime Final Fantasy fans, it's bringing turn-based combat front and center again.

Square Enix has revealed Sephiroth as one of the characters you can encounter and challenge.

There's already a demo available, too, with progress from the first chapter carrying into the full game.

Of everything releasing in October, this might be one of the games closest to that slam-dunk side of the fence.

Final Fantasy Resonance arrives October 22.

Phantom Blade Zero — October 29

And then there's Phantom Blade Zero.

This thing just looks nasty.

Phantom Blade Zero mixes traditional Chinese wuxia, fantasy, martial arts and horror into what developer S-GAME calls Kungfupunk. The combat we've seen is incredibly fast, with sword fights that look almost choreographed while still giving you control of the whole thing.

This is another one where I'm trying not to get too far ahead of myself because flashy trailers can make damn near anything look good.

But man.

Phantom Blade Zero looks good.

If the actual game feels as good as its combat looks, October could be ending on one hell of a high note.

It releases October 29.

The Wolf Among Us Remastered — October 29

It wouldn't be a Top 10 without an 11th entry.

The Wolf Among Us Remastered brings Telltale's 2013 story-driven adventure back for modern platforms with improved visuals, lighting, animations and presentation. It also includes a new Noir Mode that lets you play the entire game in black and white.

If you've never played it, The Wolf Among Us follows Bigby Wolf, the Big Bad Wolf, as sheriff of a hidden community populated by characters from fairy tales and folklore. It's basically a dark murder mystery wrapped inside the Fables universe, with the dialogue choices and consequences Telltale became known for.

Is a remaster the most exciting release of October?

Probably not. But it could be just what you need. 

It arrives October 29 alongside Phantom Blade Zero.

A Few More Worth Mentioning

October actually has enough going on that a few games didn't make the list but are still worth mentioning.

Dragon's Dogma 2: Dark Arisen is a big one. The Dark Arisen expansion arrives for the existing PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC versions in October, while the complete package also brings Dragon's Dogma 2 to Nintendo Switch 2. The expansion adds the snowy Norgan region and 12 new dungeon challenges.

Switch 2 is getting some love elsewhere too. It Takes Two arrives on Switch 2 October 15, with improved resolution, frame rates and visual effects, plus a free upgrade for existing Switch owners. Minecraft gets its native Switch 2 version October 27, including the new Vibrant Visuals graphics treatment.

So no, October isn't November.

There isn't a GTA VI-sized monster sitting in the middle of the month sucking all the oxygen out of the room.

But that's probably a good thing.

October has a little bit of everything: horror, RPGs, racing, MMOs, Soulslikes, retro shooters and a couple of franchises that have been around longer than some of the people reading this article.

For me, Gears of War: E-Day, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, Final Fantasy Resonance and Phantom Blade Zero are probably the ones I'm watching closest.

And then November 19 arrives.

Good luck to everybody releasing anything after that. But we will keep an eye out for all!