Well folks, Gamescom Opening Night Live has now come and gone. We had some predictions about how the night could’ve gone including an appeal to finally get a single crumb of a Sonic The Hedgehog 3 trailer for the upcoming movie and a Hideo Kojima sighting, as has become the norm around events put on by Geoff Keighley. Turns out, the Kotaku staff was wrong to have any hopes and dreams, let alone predictions, because only one of them came to be even remotely true. Here’s how the night went:
Update: In a move that continues to absolutely shock me, we did not get a Sonic the Hedgehog 3 trailer at Gamescom. Reader, we haven’t gotten a single trailer for a movie that’s due out this holiday season. It’s not that I think it’s going to miss the holiday, and a trailer has been shown at a conference, but you’d think that Paramount might want to start building some excitement for the movie that’s going to bring Shadow to live-action!
Prediction: I feel like every day for the past six months or so I’ve been certain Paramount and Sega would finally blow the lid off the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 promotion and put out a trailer for the next live-action movie. And every day I have been disappointed. We are nearly four months away from this movie’s premiere on December 20, and most of the public hasn’t seen so much as a frame of the Keanu Reeves-led film. Paramount doesn’t need to rely on Geoff’s latest showcase for an audience, but it seems like they’re waiting for something grand considering they’ve barely done any promotion for the movie this close to its release. The Sonic fandom is driving itself up the wall living on crumbs. It’s time, Paramount. Give Geoff the trailer so he can give it that World Premiere 9000. — Kenneth Shepard
Update: If any of these were going to come true, it’d likely be this one. Hideo Kojima is famously best buds with Keighley, who never turns down an opportunity to feature the esteemed developer front and center at any one of his events. Gamescom is an admittedly low-interest show for a lot of markets though, whereas Summer Game Fest and The Game Awards have become huge blowouts, so I guess it makes some sense. Even so, Kojima and his studio are working on at least two major projects right now, and an appearance from either could’ve spiced up Gamescom Opening Night Live.
Prediction: It’s usually a safe bet that Hideo Kojima makes some kind of appearance in a Geoff Keighley joint because the host will not let us forget they’re besties. Kojima Productions does have three known game projects in the works between Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, OD, and Physint, but it does seem like the Norman Reedus-led sequel is the most imminent. We haven’t seen the game in almost seven months, and if it’s coming in 2025, I could see Kojima bringing at least a small teaser of some kind to the show. If not, I’d put Kojima getting any kind of mention on my bingo card. Geoff can’t help himself. — Kenneth Shepard
Update: Y’all, Peter Molyneux—the man who literally created Fable—took the stage at Gamescom to show off a new game he’s working on that’s literally set in the same universe and world as Fable but we did not get a glimpse of the actual next game in the series. Despite Xbox’s huge presence at Gamescom this year, the highly anticipated RPG was a complete no-show. Guess I’ll just go fuck myself, then.
Prediction: Despite everything going on over at Microsoft, or maybe due to it, I’m really rooting for the studios that fall under its umbrella. I’m excited for a number of upcoming games out of several of those teams, like Avowed, which we know is already going to be at Gamescom. So instead of going with the all-too-safe pick, I want to see something that’s seemed a bit more nebulous of late: Fable. We’ve known about this upcoming series reboot for some time now, and Playground Games has been hard at work on it for a while, but it hasn’t really amounted to much outside of some CG trailers and a “gameplay” trailer that hardly featured any of it earlier this year. Show me the damn game, Microsoft.
I want to be stoked for this upcoming RPG, especially considering how obsessed I was with Fable 2 as a kid. I never actually got around to playing the entire series though, and by the time I got a platform that could play them, the world had moved on from Fable. It’s back now though, and I’m finally in a position to be there for a Fable launch. Considering the game is supposed to be out next year, Fable should probably start appearing at as many shows as possible before it comes out, why not start here and now? —Moises Taveras
Update: I cannot believe that Zack is the only one that got points on the board, making him the de facto winner of Gamescom. As a reward, he gets to have the satisfaction of knowing that this was apparently Phil Spencer’s reaction to the news that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is coming to PS5 shortly after its launch on Xbox later this year.
Prediction: Earlier this year, after many rumors, Xbox confirmed that a handful of once-exclusive games would arrive on PlayStation and Switch. This led to Sea of Thieves, Hi-Fi Rush and a few others becoming multiplatform titles. While none of these were Halo-level big, it did show that Xbox was willing to become a more multiplatform brand moving forward. And now, there are new rumors that another Xbox game will be making the leap to PlayStation and it will be revealed at Gamescom Opening Night Live.
What game will Xbox toss over the fence and let PlayStation users enjoy? We’re not sure yet. At one point it was rumored to be Forza Horizon 5, but Verge reporter Tom Warren has said that’s not the case. Warren also suggested it won’t be a Gears of War or Halo game, nor will it be Bethesda’s open-world RPG Starfield. So what could it be? It could be 2023’s Forza Motorsport, though I’m not sure Xbox wants to make that franchise multiplatform. More likely it will be something older and not as popular, like the first games that hopped over to other consoles. So I’d predict Killer Instinct or Rare Replay. There’s also the possibility that something that hasn’t launched yet, like that upcoming Indiana Jones game, gets a PS5 port. We’ll have to wait and see what Xbox is willing to share. - Zack Zwiezen
Update: Perhaps due to Finland’s relative proximity to Germany, a lot of folks might have expected the studio’s founder, Sam Lake, to show up. Hell, the Gamescom Opening Night Live pre-show joked about him appearing and doing another dance like the one he does in Alan Wake 2. In lieu of that, he could’ve also come with news about the final DLC for the survival-horror game or a glimpse at the upcoming remakes of both Max Payne and Max Payne 2. Unfortunately, there was no Sam Lake, no news for Alan Wake 2, and definitely no slow-mo shootouts in Max Payne to be seen. Truly the biggest of bummers about the whole show.
Prediction: Remedy Entertainment announced it was remaking the original two Max Payne games back in 2022. It felt a bit unnecessary and quixotic to me at the time, but the more time passes, the more I hunger for the classic, brooding detective thrillers to get their next-gen makeover. I’m not sure how the PS2 games will translate to modern sensibilities around third-person shooting and level design, but fortunately that’s not my job to figure it out. The first two Max Payne games remain all-timers, and as worthy of being remade as Silent Hill, Metal Gear, or anything else.
The studio is also at the height of its creative juice coming off of Control and Alan Wake 2, so I’m eager to see whether Remedy plays the remakes as straight visual overhauls or goes completely meta with their return as creative director Sam Lake is fond of doing. The timing also feels ripe for a peak of how the project’s been going. The studio recently announced the Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake was in full production, and 2025 seems like a good window for a full release. I want to see Punchinello Manor in all its modern, ray-traced glory. —Ethan Gach
