Gamescom 2021 Recap
Gamescom 2021 is upon us. As was the case with this year’s E3 event, it is a digital livestream rather than an in-person conference, which does make announcements slightly easier to keep up with.
That said, it will still likely take you a fair amount of time to sit and sift through all of the fluff and pre-amble that comes with each of the livestreams broadcast though the past week.
So, in order to save you the trouble, I have typed up a handy list of bullet points recapping each of the streams broadcast thus far.
Although Gamescom 2021 is still ongoing at the time of writing this piece, the streams containing the major AAA announcements have all already happened, with the remaining streams focusing on smaller indie titles. If there is another surprise major announcement at the end of the event, then this article will be updated, but failing that, all of the major announcements from the event will be listed below.
Without further ado, read on for our recap of Gamescom 2021 below.
Tuesday 24/8
Destiny 2 Showcase – Gamescom 2021 recap
Bungie were the first development team to make an appearance during this year’s Gamescom stream. The Destiny 2 Showcase revealed details regarding the online shooter’s next major piece of DLC content. This update is called The Witch Queen and it is set to launch in 2022. You can watch the entire Destiny 2 showcase here on YouTube, but our summary is below:
- Both a reveal trailer and a gameplay trailer were shown for The Witch Queen DLC.
- Crossplay will go live in Destiny 2 today, along with the Season of the Lost.
- Weapon crafting is confirmed to be coming to Destiny 2 along with a brand new energy weapon called The Glaive.
- The Gjallarhorn weapon is set to make a comeback in Destiny 2 and a Nerf version is also being released in real life.
- Bungie also confirmed that after The Witch Queen DLC and Lightfall, the final chapter in The Light and Dark Saga will be a piece of DLC called The Final Shape – but Destiny 2 will still continue beyond that point.
- 15 minutes before the main show, Luke Smith and Jason Jones from Bungie spoke about their history with gaming.
- Fans and content creators clips were shown in the pre-show, summing up their favourite Bungie moments.
Xbox Stream – Gamescom 2021 recap
Microsoft were the next company to present at Gamescom 2021, hosting an Xbox stream on YouTube and Twitch. Here is a recap of everything revealed during the stream:
- Xbox Cloud Gaming will come to Xbox consoles at the end of 2021 and will allow players to jump into new games on their console without any downloads – check out the trailer for it here.
- Forza Horizon 5 got eight minutes of gameplay footage and a very cool-looking custom Xbox controller.
- The next trailer revealed the list of Humble Games that are set to drop on Xbox Game Pass on their day of release.
- Sea of Thieves is apparently getting a Borderlands-style Mayhem ship, which can be unlocked through gameplay between the 24th of August and the 7th of September.
- Psychonauts 2, which released today, got a launch trailer.
- The Cult of the Holy Detention DLC for Wasteland 3 showed a trailer and got a release date of the 5th of October 2021.
- The Gunk got a trailer.
- More of Dying Light 2: Stay Human was shown.
- Point Blank Games dropped a reveal trailer for Stray Blade.
- DLC for State of Decay 2: Homecoming got a new trailer ahead of its 1st of September release date.
Wednesday 25/8
Gamescom stepped it up a notch on Wednesday, with its Opening Night Live event providing some big reveals and surprises, as gaming industry fave Geoff Keighley once again called the shots. Check out our handy recap of the Opening Night Live stream below!
Opening Night Live – Gamescom 2021 recap
This portion stepped things up a notch, you can check out the full segment YouTube yourself, but your handy recap of the key points is just below:
- Opening Night Live began with the reveal trailer for Saints Row, and gave us some gameplay footage, confirming a 22nd February release date.
- A new Marvel game was revealed! Wolverine, Doctor Strange and many more heroes popped up in the reveal trailer for Marvel’s Midnight Suns, a tactical RPG from 2K coming March 2022.
- The Horizon Forbidden West release date was confirmed for 18th February 2022, with pre-orders starting on 2nd September.
- Far Cry 6 also got a new trailer, focusing on Giancarlo Esposito’s character.
- Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga got a new trailer and reaffirmed its Spring 2022 release window.
- Microsoft dropped a surprise new trailer for Halo Infinite, and confirmed 8th December as the new release date – plus, there will be limited edition Halo Infinite versions of the Xbox Series X console and Xbox Elite Wireless Controller 2.
- We got an extended look at Call of Duty: Vanguard, with Laura Bailey stopping by to introduce her character from the campaign.
- Hideo Kojima shared a new deep-dive video for Death Stranding: Director’s Cut, revealing new gameplay features and locations.
- The new trailer for Jurassic World Evolution 2 confirmed its 9th November 2021 release date.
- Marvel Future Revolution got a new trailer to mark its release on mobile devices today.
- The Jungle Book content is coming to Fall Guys, a new trailer revealed.
- Jumanji: The Curse Returns got a new trailer.
- Genshin Impact fans got a new trailer for the Horizon Zero Dawn/Aloy content in the game.
- Ubisoft shared a new trailer for Rider’s Republic, which launches a free beta today.
- There was a new trailer shown for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge.
- Amazon’s New World MMO game shared a new trailer and revealed its next beta dates (9th-12th September).
- Tales of Luminara and the Tales of Arise mobile game both shared new trailers.
- A few indie games and smaller titles got given some time to shine, with trailers shown for SIFU, Midnight Fight Express, Cult of the Lamb, Splitgate, Super Monkey Ball, and more.
- The pre-show, hosted by Kyle Bosman, featured new trailers for King of Fighters 15, The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes, Bus Simulator 21, Soundfall, Dolmen, Nine to Five, Nobody Saves the World and more.
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