Kingdom Hearts 3

(PlayStation 4, Xbox One) Disney and Pixar icons meet Japanese video-game heroes in this long-awaited role-player. Featuring worlds themed around Toy Story, Monsters Inc and Big Hero 6, among much else, this huge crossover adventure will hold some appeal for anyone who’s ever loved a Disney movie, which is surely just about everyone. Forgive the hopelessly convoluted plot and just enjoy fighting dark creatures with Donald Duck and Jack Sparrow.
Release: 29 January

Anthem

(PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC) Strap yourself into a flying mech suit, fit it with a selection of interesting guns and powers, and explore beautiful foreign planets with a couple of friends, shooting aliens together as you go. If that sounds a bit close to the premise of space-shooter Destiny, that’s because it is. But with story-focused developer BioWare in charge, Anthem is likely to involve plenty of long chats with interesting characters and narrative intrigue alongside the gear-customising and alien-slaying.
22 February

Tom Clancy’s The Division 2

(PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC) Your squad of government operatives must keep the peace in a post-apocalyptic Washington DC as civil war breaks out among the survivors of a disease that decimated the population. This online action game will not only indulge catastrophic fantasies of total societal breakdown, but provide ample material for jokes about the state of US politics. And it’s a tactical shooter as opposed to a first-person one, so you can have an entertaining time with friends instead of getting shot instantly by teenagers.
15 March

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

(PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC) A horror-tinged ninja-samurai game from Hidetaka Miyazaki, the director of Dark Souls, one of the very best games of this decade. It involves intense combat with monsters and sword-wielding demon samurai, and using a grappling-hook arm to make your way through beautiful, disturbing locations across late-16th-century Japan. This is a focused, unique action game that allows you to be quick and sneaky. It’s exciting to see what developer FromSoftware is doing now that it has broken free from the Dark Souls series that brought it worldwide success.
22 March

Shenmue 3

(PC, PlayStation 4) The concluding chapter of a trilogy that began in 1999, when the inimitable, idiosyncratic, improbable life-simulation-cum-kung-fu-adventure Shenmue arrived on the Dreamcast. Wooden protagonist Ryo Hazuki is on a mission to avenge his murdered father, having set out from his small Japanese town of Yokosuka to track down the killer in Hong Kong. Previous Shenmue games combined detailed, realistic locations with martial arts brawling and melodramatic mysticism. It is difficult to know what to expect from Shenmue 3 after a 20-year hiatus, which is exactly why it is so interesting.
27 August

Dreams

(PlayStation 4) Less a game and more a suite of fun-to-use creative tools, Dreams gives you the tools to turn your idle daydreams into playable vignettes to share with others. Mould, sculpt or paint worlds and characters, compose your own music, design puzzles and enemies, or download other people’s creations to complement your own. You can make almost anything in Dreams, and seeing the madly creative things that emerge from it will be as interesting as playing it ourselves.
Release tbc

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite

(Mobile) The extremely wealthy creators of Pokémon Go are lining up another potential world-conquering augmented reality mobile game, this time based on the Harry Potter universe. Players will cast spells, hunt for magical artefacts, and find characters and creatures around their real-world neighbourhoods, the wizarding world overlaid on to the real one. Expect to bump into thousands of millennials with their wands (ie, phones) out on the street for months after it arrives.
Release tbc

The Last of Us: Part 2

(PlayStation 4) This intense, cinematic game about a survivor of a world-destroying disease outbreak is far from the usual boring zombie story. Ellie, the teenaged star of the first Last of Us, is now an adult navigating the pitiless, ravaged US and defending herself from the vicious factions prowling its abandoned malls and towns. This is an extremely brutal game, but its shocking violence contrasts with the relatable humanity of its central characters.
Release tbc

Ooblets

(Xbox One, PC) An adorable life simulator in which you grow cute creatures from seeds and take care of a house and a farm – a chill, colourful, resolutely calm prospect. Instead of battling the creatures, there are dance parties. This is a peaceful alternate world to sink into, where the gentle rhythms of everyday virtual life suck you into a soothing state of relaxation. Its welcoming, oddball cartoonish visual style doesn’t hurt, either.
Release tbc

Skull & Bones

(Xbox One, PC, PlayStation 4) Not the Yale University secret society, but a historical shared-world pirate adventure on the high seas. You can adventure alone as a pirate captain or team up with other ships in big player-versus-player battles and treasure hunts. It’s the atmosphere that makes Skull & Bones an exciting prospect: the waves, hulking galleons, thunderous cannonfire and crewmen running back and forth across the deck. The ship battles feel real and dangerous.
Release tbc