With Christmas well and truly behind us, it’s now time to start looking at what the year ahead holds in terms of video game releases, and you’ll be pleased to know it’s looking stacked indeed.
Hotly-anticipated games like Grand Theft Auto 6, Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, and Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave are all scheduled for this year, but we’ve got to get January out of the way before we get to those.
Not that January itself doesn’t bear wonders galore for gamers looking for something to do after the excesses of Christmas, of course. Here are the best games coming out in January 2026!
StarRupture (PC – January 6th)
If you’re not tired of Early Access base-building survival games (and the brilliantly-named developer Creepy Jar rather hopes you’re not), then StarRupture will be an excellent way to kick off the year.
Creepy Jar’s game plonks you onto an alien planet and asks you, simply, to survive. Build yourself a robust base, gather resources and extract them from the planet itself, and do battle with “hordes of alien monsters”.
It’s nothing you haven’t seen before, but StarRupture’s exceedingly slick presentation, along with Creepy Jar’s pedigree (these are the folks behind Green Hell), should make this one to watch.
Pathologic 3 (PC – January 9th)
And now for something completely different. Pathologic 3 might sound like the third game in the Pathologic series of bleak immersive sim-style adventures, but these things can be a little more complicated than they initially appear.
The third Pathologic game is actually a hugely reworked version of something that was originally intended to be DLC for Pathologic 2, which is itself essentially a reworked version of the original Pathologic.
Confused yet? Don’t worry – you probably won’t need to play the first two Pathologic games to understand what’s going on here. Honestly, even playing Pathologic 3 probably won’t give you that information either.
Quarantine Zone: The Last Check (PC – January 12th)
It’s a good month to be a PC gamer, isn’t it? Quarantine Zone: The Last Check comes to us from publisher Devolver Digital, and as the title suggests, it’s a game in which you serve as a border guard during a zombie apocalypse.
It’ll be up to you to screen potential entrants and refugees for the zombie plague, and if they have it, to turn them away. Of course, you may end up inadvertently accepting zombies-to-be, and you’ll need to deal with that as well.
Not only will you be tasked with dealing with camp hopefuls, but you’ll also have to defend your base against the zombie hordes. Staff cuts are really biting these days, eh?
The Legend of Heroes: Trails Beyond the Horizon (PC, PlayStation, Switch family – January 15th)
The Legend of Heroes is another series that requires a PhD to understand; not only is this the thirteenth entry in the Trails sub-series, but that franchise itself actually belongs to an older series, The Legend of Heroes.
In any case, you might actually want to do a little homework before you check this one out, because Trails Beyond the Horizon is part of a wider story arc that also includes Trails Through Daybreak and Trails of Cold Steel.
If you are already a fan – or, indeed, if you’ve brushed up before reading this – you can expect more of the same real-time and turn-based combat, anime-style melodrama, and sweeping storytelling.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Switch 2 Edition (Switch 2 – January 15th)
Okay, so technically Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn’t a new game, but given that this probably means we won’t be getting a new Animal Crossing game on Switch 2 (at least for a while), we’re including it here.
Like most Switch 2 Edition releases do, New Horizons will come complete with new visual and performance upgrades when it lands on Nintendo’s new machine, as well as mouse control support.
It’ll also be arriving alongside a free update that will bring a new hotel for you to relax in, as well as “other new features and activities”. Exciting times!
Mio: Memories in Orbit (PC, PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2 – January 20th)
Much like the survival genre, Metroidvanias are starting to feel just a little bit played out to us, but Mio: Memories in Orbit has a secret weapon on that front, namely an absolutely gorgeous art style.
This side-scrolling platformer will cast you as the titular android Mio, who must explore a huge “technological ark” known as the Vessel in order to save its inhabitants from destruction.
Mio: Memories in Orbit looks like it has more of a narrative focus than many of its brethren, so if you like your explorative platformers with a side order of emotional pathos, look no further.
The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin (PC, PS5 – January 28th)
Based on the anime and manga property of the same name, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin promises a beautiful open world to explore, especially if you’re a fan of the series.
You can expect to meet fan favourite characters from across the series’ world, and don’t worry if your favourites don’t match up timeline-wise; the game will incorporate moments and characters “transcending timelines and dimensions”.
If you’re not in the mood for combat, The Seven Deadly Sins: Origin will also let you simply kick back and go fishing, partake in some cooking, or just wander around the world and see what you can find.
Code Vein 2 (PC, PS5, Xbox Series – January 30th)
Has the Soulslike fever died down a little bit? Bandai Namco will be hoping it hasn’t (or perhaps that it has), because Code Vein 2 is launching at the end of January.
If you enjoyed the first game, which juxtaposed anime storytelling alongside Souls-inspired combat, then you’re almost certainly going to like this one as well.
Rather ambitiously, Code Vein 2 will also incorporate time travel into its story, so you’ll be altering the fates of characters you meet across both the present and the past. Let’s hope Bandai Namco can pull this daring new direction off!
