What Is Actually Playable at Gamescom 2026, From Guitars to Unannounced ARPGs

Gamescom is next week, and the slate of playable demos and hardware showings being lined up behind closed doors gives a decent picture of what the show floor will look like.

Limited Run Games on preservation

Limited Run Games is sending COO Nic Ashforth and CFO Brendan Madigan to talk about the company’s shift to what it describes as a fan-first ethos, along with game preservation and the state of physical media. That is a more pointed subject than it sounds: the physical games market has spent the last two years arguing about what ownership means when the disc is a licence key, and Limited Run sits at the centre of it.

RedOctane returns to rhythm

Lee Guinchard, COO of Fellowship Entertainment and CEO of RedOctane Games, is at the show for STAGE TOUR. RedOctane is the name behind Guitar Hero’s original run, and the studio’s reappearance in the rhythm space comes with a new Kramer guitar controller that will be playable on the floor.

Peripheral-driven rhythm games have been dormant as a mass-market category since the plastic instrument boom collapsed. Whether a new controller can restart that is the most interesting open question at the show.

Hardware on the floor

Hyperkin is bringing the Drakong Infinakore Guitar alongside its new PixelByte controller, the blind-box collectible pad announced earlier this month. Honeycomb Aeronautical is running flight sim setups built around the Echo Aviation Controller.

Demos worth queueing for

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction has a new demo at the show. Clear River Games is showing two unannounced action RPGs, one of which was teased earlier in the week and neither of which has been formally revealed.

Unannounced ARPGs are the sort of thing that either becomes the story of the show or disappears without trace. We will find out next week.