Opening Night Live is almost here and Gamescom 2021 is well underway. The Xbox Stream was fantastic, despite the lack of Halo Infinite news, and we're now looking forward to everything else Gamescom 2021 has to offer. Here's the latest on Opening Night Live and what we're expecting...
LATEST - Is The Division Heartland showing up?
Ubisoft is due to appear at Gamescom 2021's Opening Night Live later today and we don't think Far Cry 6 is the only thing they're going to mention.
Earlier this year, The Division Heartland was announced - This free-to-play Division game had everyone talking, but we don't really know too much about it. E3 2021 rolled around a couple of months ago and The Division 2 and The Division Heartland were both notably absent. Now, as we look ahead to Gamescom 2021 and Opening Night Live...
Could we see The Division Heartland show up? We know virtually nothing about this game and it's been given a very vague "2021-22" release date. However, you can already sign up for the beta so they must be somewhat approaching something playable. Opening Night Live could reveal all... But we'll just have to wait and see.
XBOX STREAM - The opening night before Opening Night Live
In an unusual turn of events, Xbox has actually announced their Gamescom 2021 stream ahead of Opening Night Live. So, technically, today is the opening night for Gamescom 2021!
Major Nelson broke the news and confirmed a lot of important details. We've got them listed below:
- Xbox Gamescom 2021 Stream will be available via Official Xbox Channels on Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter
- The stream will last around 90 minutes and start at the following times:
- 10:00 August 24th - PST
- 13:00 August 24th - EST
- 18:00 August 24th - BST
- Initially, the stream will be in 1080p - however, a 4K version will be uploaded to YouTube after it has concluded;
- On YouTube, the Xbox Stream will have ASL and Audio Description support alongside subtitles in 30 languages;
We're expecting Halo Infinite to headline this event alongside the new Forza Horizon title, but there's going to be a lot of surprises to look out for. The future of Xbox's Game Pass is also going to be discussed.
TRAILER - Opening Night Live to feature 30+ Games
Call of Duty Vanguard isn't the only game showing up at Opening Night Live this week. Deep Silver has been teasing a new Saints Row title alongside confirmation from Opening Night Live host Geoff Keighley that titles like Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and Super Monkey Ball Banana Mania will be appearing.
Following on from this, Keighley has shared a trailer for this week's Opening Night Live Showcase that reveals titles like Far Cry 6, Death Stranding Director's Cut, and Jurassic World Evolution 2.
In total, over thirty games are going to be mentioned during Gamescom 2021's Opening Night Live - You're not going to want to miss it.
Our first look at Vanguard is coming...
We've seen the explosive Cinematic Announcement Trailer from Sledgehammer Games, but there's a lot more we still need to see from Call of Duty Vanguard before we're decided on it. The Battle of Verdansk Warzone event was - as you might have already expected - a bit of a letdown. We got a few Weapon Blueprints, but at what cost to the time wasted?
Thankfully, we don't have to wait long to see something a little more exciting from Call of Duty Vanguard. Geoff Keighley, the host of Opening Night Live, has confirmed that we're going to be seeing gameplay from the new Call of Duty game during Opening Night Live!
When does Opening Night Live start?
Geoff Keighley is due to host the Opening Night Live showcase on August 25th and has finally announced the time of day it's all due to go down. As you can see in the tweet below, you will be able to watch Gamescom 2021's Opening Night Live at 11:00 PST / 14:00 EST / 19:00 BST on August 25th.
The stream is due to last around two hours and is all going to happen live "on-air". This means we should be able to avoid spoilers ahead of the event as there won't be a pre-recording. That being said, developers should start to confirm their attendance on their own social media channels as we get closer to the event's launch.
How to watch Opening Night Live?
As you can see in Geoff Keighley's announcement, Gamescom 2021's Opening Night Live is going to be "Streaming & Co-Streaming Everywhere".
This means we should expect to see this on Gamescom's website, YouTube and Twitch at the very latest. We don't know who exactly is attending this showcase specifically, so we can't confirm which developers will be co-streaming the event.
However, with names like Activision, Bandai Namco, SEGA, and Ubisoft all registered as partners... We should see, at the very least, their announcements also appear on their own social media channels.
Who should appear at Opening Night Live?
At the moment, this really is anyone's guess. Gamescom has shared their list of partnering developers, though, to give us some idea of what to expect.
505 Games, Activision, Aerosoft, Assemble Entertainment, Astragon Entertainment, Bandai Namco Entertainment, Bethesda Softworks, Electronic Arts, Gamevil Com2us Europe, Headup, Indie Arena Booth, Koch Media, Tencent Games' NExT Studios, SEGA Europe, Team17, Thunderful Games, Ubisoft, Wargaming, and Xbox have all agreed to be partners.
We're expecting to see more about Tom Clancy's XDefiant and the next Call of Duty title at the very latest, but there's going to be quite a few surprises.