Chinese-made games have taken the center stage at Gamescom
Text by Erji, Guofu, Liu Shiwu
In the early hours of August 26, the 2026 Gamescom Opening Night Live drew to a close.
As one of the world's most high-profile gaming showcase events, this year's broadcast sparked sharply different reactions among players and media at home and abroad. Some foreign media outlets pointed out that a large number of games featured in the showcase converge in atmosphere building, gameplay loops and art styles, with dark fantasy themes and hardcore shooting works piling up, which inevitably leads to aesthetic fatigue. Most of the works that drew cheers from the audience are returns and sequels of classic IPs.
Game Director of Final Fantasy 7: Revelation
However, for domestic Chinese players, it was a night full of surprises and expectations. If in the past few years, the appearance of Chinese games in key positions of large international gaming showcases could be called a surprise, by 2026, this "sense of presence" has almost become the leading spotlight.
According to statistics, among the more than 50 games released that night, a total of 14 games developed or published by Chinese manufacturers took the stage, hitting an all-time high in number. From the 3D blockbuster Nodusfall, which was officially unveiled for the first time by HoYoverse in the opening session, to Infinite Bold that occupied the core promotion position in the event preview, and then to standalone works such as Tide of Annihilation and Dollar Imperial Story, the Chinese games ran through the entire showcase.
In addition to large manufacturers, more small and medium-sized studios also got exposure opportunities on the international stage. For example, Immo and Ancient God: Velis appeared in the pre-show of Opening Night Live.
Immo
Apart from the quantity, another signal conveyed by the 2026 Gamescom is also worth noting — "Chinese culture" is no longer a gimmick with a superficial coating. The specific manifestation is that we no longer need to emphasize "cultural confidence", but are already able to create works based on the profound cultural background of China, and deliver products with excellent presentation. This is true for Black Myth, and it is also the case for other Chinese products showcased at this Gamescom.
The following is the information of notable new Chinese game titles in this year's Gamescom Opening Night Live.
HoYoverse
The debut work of the opening night is Nodusfall (NODUSFALL), a mythological 3D blockbuster under HoYoverse, and the "Hoyoverse" shown in the clip drew cheers from the scene. The game focuses on multiplayer co-op combat. Players will play as the "Weaver", step into a world where the theocracy has fallen and order has collapsed, meet powerful partners, fight against formidable enemies that shake the heaven and earth, seize the scattered power of divinity across the world, and rebuild the world order.
The PV densely presents mythological imageries from different cultural backgrounds around the world, including the great flood of the old world, ten suns appearing in the sky at the same time, Qiongqi and Nine-Tailed Fox recorded in *Classic of Mountains and Seas*, as well as the dragon in the German epic *Nibelungenlied*. HoYoverse did not choose a single civilization as the cultural background of the game world, but incorporated mythological imageries from different civilization systems into a grand fantasy world.
Nine-Tailed Fox
As one of the most discussed games during this opening night, Nodusfall sparked heated discussions among players as soon as it was unveiled. The grand worldview, epic scenes, character facial modeling and cooperative combat gameplay presented in the PV have all become the focus of discussion. In particular, Nodusfall has a significantly different style from HoYoverse's previous works, and Liu Wei (Da Wei) also stated on WeChat Moments that this is a work "very un-HoYoverse".
Another product brought by HoYoverse is Starfield Valley, which has completed two rounds of tests. The game will launch the final "Connection Test" on September 20, and is scheduled for release in the winter of 2026.
Nodusfall, a work completely different from HoYoverse's previous products
The first half of the PV shows single-player gameplay such as planting, fishing, and beach foraging, while the second half emphasizes multiplayer gameplay such as interacting with AI NPCs, scanning codes for socializing, and taking photos in the plaza. "Connection" is obviously the core keyword of Starfield Valley at the current stage, and the game aims to build diverse virtual community relationships around socializing and life simulation.
NetEase Games
At this Gamescom, NetEase showcased a total of 3 products.
Among them, Sea of Oblivion is a sailing-themed roguelike treasure-hunting game integrating multiple gameplay contents, which has been launched on PC and mobile platforms around July. This product's participation in Gamescom and the release of its promotional video are largely aimed at further covering the overseas market and expanding the audience base and influence of the game.
The more significant work is Infinite Bold. This product officially announced that its public beta will be launched on January 15 next year, with a global simultaneous release covering PC, PS5 and mobile platforms. Infinite Bold is an urban-themed anime-style game, which is often directly compared with Perfect World's Loop of Abnormity in the market, and both are relatively mainstream theme innovation works in the anime-style game track.
Infinite Bold release schedule poster
The difference is that, as far as it can be seen at present, Infinite Bold still implements the original open world design idea of "integrating all kinds of contents", rather than the creation mode of Loop of Abnormity that emphasizes thematic atmosphere and urban gameplay. In previous showcases, the game has presented interesting gameplay from many common games, with a unique meme-style humorous temperament.
In the new trailer this time, they extended this temperament to the content level, and "stitched" the entire cities of Hangzhou and Shanghai into one new map. It can be seen that this map includes not only the Oriental Pearl Tower and the Bund in Shanghai, but also iconic landscapes such as West Lake, Leifeng Pagoda and Longjing Village in Hangzhou.
West Lake
In the trailer, many internet memes, such as drinking Mixue ice cream under the Oriental Pearl Tower, are also presented in a dynamic way. It may not be a specific gameplay content, but it directly reflects the prominent civilian cultural temperament of Infinite Bold as a whole.
Drinking Mixue under the Oriental Pearl Tower
At the same time, NetEase's survival and construction game Once Human also launched its overseas console version today in conjunction with the new promotional video, covering the two major console platforms of PS5 and Xbox.
Tencent Games
This time Tencent brought a total of 6 related products across multiple tracks, which can be called the Chinese manufacturer with the richest product layout in this opening night. Among them, there are original products independently developed and published by Tencent, IP works co-developed with long-established overseas game studios, and its overseas publishing brand Level Infinite also creates more possibilities for Tencent to enter the international market, participating in the global game market competition in different ways.
The most important work is undoubtedly Tide of Annihilation, a fantasy action adventure game developed by Chengdu Eclipse Edge Studio. They unveiled a brand new story teaser this time.
Tide of Annihilation story teaser
Tide of Annihilation has previously met domestic players offline many times through game exhibitions and demo sessions, and this time it will be open for offline demo to overseas players for the first time at Gamescom. As a Western fantasy work adapted from the classic Arthurian legend, the real feedback from European and American players will also become one of the key factors determining whether this game can succeed in the market.
It is particularly noteworthy that Tide of Annihilation has been shortlisted for the Best PlayStation Game of this year's gamescom Awards, competing with works such as Dragon's Dogma 2, Metro 2039, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword. For a Chinese standalone action game that has not yet been officially released, this in itself is a kind of international recognition.
Monster Hunter: Traveler, co-developed with Capcom, unveiled its latest original elder dragon "Prism Dragon". As the official Monster Hunter action mobile game authorized by Capcom and developed by Tencent TiMi, this new content continues the previous product idea, and continues to make new expansions through original monsters on the basis of the classic IP framework.
Monster Hunter: Traveler
The two products brought by Level Infinite are both from well-known overseas studios, which are the demonstration of the results of Tencent's overseas investment and publishing strategies in recent years. Control: Resonance is the sequel of the series developed by the Finnish studio Remedy Entertainment, which will be officially launched on September 24. Exterminauts is a 3-player co-op PvE shooting game developed by Behaviour Interactive, the developer of Dead by Daylight, which was first exposed at this showcase.
In addition to the above works, Roco Kingdom: World released a short PV at the exhibition, and later announced its overseas testing plan on social media. Animal Punk is created by the original team of *F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch*, Shanghai TiGames Network Technology, which is a brand new third-person action game that continues the worldview of the previous work.
Conclusion
Apart from Tencent, NetEase and HoYoverse, the rest of the works also have their own unique and mature content presentation — the most direct manifestation is that the same type of products can now present a variety of different content styles.
For example, Silver City from LeElement, although it is still an anime-style game, its overall content, art and gameplay styles all have strong unique creative characteristics, and it is not the follow-up commercial product commonly seen in the market in previous years. Silver City has also been nominated for Best Mobile Game of this year's gamescom Awards before its launch.
Silver City nomination
This expression mode is basically the mainstream state of the domestic game industry in recent years. From this perspective, the development paths of the other two domestic participating teams at Gamescom, Lingkong Game and Hotoo Games, are of more reference significance.
Although Lingkong Game has been established for 15 years, it still maintains the innovative spirit of indie games. This time the team brought *Dollar Imperial Story*, a work based on modern historical themes that builds a fictional world of "Japan colonizing the United States". Different from before, players can experience more level demos of the game this time. Luo Xiangyu, the founder of Lingkong Game, has work experience at Ubisoft Shanghai and EA's studios. The company has gone through multiple rounds of financing, which is a typical combination of mature experience from large factories and long-term support from capital, giving Lingkong Game the confidence to spend more energy on polishing its works.
Dollar Imperial Story
Hotoo Games, the developer of The Resister, is the opposite. The team has a scale of dozens of people, no backing from large overseas game companies, and no accumulation of mature standalone IPs. The team targets the 10+ year gap in the domestic anti-Japanese war FPS theme, emphasizing the patriotism and anti-war ideas that are more commonly seen in ancient historical themed works. The last well-known work with a similar theme background may date back to *Blood in Shanghai*. For them, The Resister still has a long way to go, but the maturity of the industry and the growing confidence of the market in domestic standalone games make the public have high expectations for this product.