Seven things we learned from Gamescom opening night

If there’s one thing the world’s gaming studios need at the moment, it’s a little bit of hype.

It has been a year with no major new console launches and where the industry has seen strikes and cuts with thousands of workers being laid off.

The opening night of Gamescom is often an opportunity for a big shiny night to get fans all excited for the year ahead.

Setting the stage for the next 12 months, here are the biggest things we found out from Europe’s biggest gaming show in Germany.

In a year when games became films, and films became games, the convention centre in Cologne saw a night all about the big trailers.

This year, Borderlands has taken attention for its movie adaptation starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Hart.

That film received some of the year’s harshest reviews, but that has not scuppered plans for a new game in the mainline series.

We don’t know lots about the game yet, other than that it is set to launch in 2025.

No specific platforms have been announced yet either, but expect this one to come to PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox’s latest consoles.

We already knew that the upcoming Black Ops 6 will be set during the First Gulf War of the 1990s.

Now we’ve had a look at one of the missions in the single-player campaign including high-speed chases and close-quarter gun fights.

This launch is already being closely watched.

It’s the first one where a Call of Duty title will be released on Microsoft’s subscription service Game Pass on day one.

Anyone signed up to that service will get this game for no extra cost, while PlayStation owners will be looking at around £70 ($90).

Fallout maker Bethesda, now a part of Microsoft’s massive collection of studios, is hoping to keep excitement building for its Indiana Jones game with a release date.

Titled Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, we found out it will be coming before the end of the year… at least if you plan to play it on an Xbox or PC.

Those gamers will get their hands on it from 9 December, just in time for Christmas shopping season.

There had been question marks over whether this game would come to its competitors’ consoles, but it was announced a version for the PlayStation 5 is in development.

That won’t be ready until Spring 2025, though.

One of the more unexpected announcements of the night, a co-op combat game called King of Meat.

Not another cooking game, but instead a new take on a dungeon crawler where you can team up with your friends to survive in a twisted reality show competition.

This one’s published by Amazon Games, and developed by Guildford-based indie studio Glowmade – a studio set up by former employees of Fable makers Lionhead Studios.

Speaking of team-based multiplayer titles, NetEase Games announced a launch date of 6 December for its free-to-play shooter Marvel Rivals.

Lots of the characters you might recognise to tempt new players in, including Captain America, Black Panther and Iron Man.

We also got a new gameplay trailer which confirms this title will have a lot in common with popular hero shooter Overwatch.

The name Peter Molyneux ring a bell?

As one of the main creators of the fantasy epic Fable, we now know he’s got a new project in the works called Masters of Albion.

If you’re a Fable fan, you’ll know Albion is the name of the world in which those games are set.

Curiously though, this one apparently will not be set in the same universe as those Fable games.

The trailer showed off a top-down real-time strategy game with elements of resource management and questing.

We got a short glimpse at a new project from Hangar 13 in the Mafia series to close the show.

It’s going to be called Mafia: The Old Country, and while we didn’t get a release date or launch window, we’ve been promised more details in December.

No surprises if that features heavily at the Game Awards.