Many of the most ambitious games ever made are open-world titles, and that’s hardly a coincidence. Built around the idea of player freedom, surrounding players with unrestricted worlds filled with countless NPCs that react to their presence is already a complex challenge that’s not easy to get right. Still, every now and then, a new open-world game emerges that pushes things one step further with a bold concept and masterful execution.
Today, we’re exploring upcoming open-world games with truly mind-blowing concepts, many of which could become the next big thing. With that in mind, the spotlight is mostly on fresh titles exploring new territories rather than continuations of established series, leaving out games like The Witcher 4 or The Elder Scrolls 6. Original concepts, new universes, and endless possibilities – here are some of the most intriguing upcoming open-world games for 2026 and beyond.
Grand Theft Auto 6
Release Date: May 26, 2026
Despite being a clear continuation of an established world-class franchise we said we’d omit, it’s impossible to deny Grand Theft Auto 6 a place among the most mind-blowing open-world games on the horizon. Likely to be the biggest entertainment release in history, Rockstar seems ready once again to set an unreachable bar for the genre, given the immense resources poured into this colossus.
Fans have only seen a few minutes of in-engine footage so far, but it’s already clear that GTA 6 stands unmatched in its scope and attention to detail, a true technical marvel that some players still doubt will fully translate into the final product. Rockstar’s track record, however, suggests otherwise, leaving little doubt that GTA 6 will blow everyone’s minds in 2026.
Crimson Desert
Release Date: March 19, 2026
Crimson Desert is one of those rare open-world games that keeps surprising with every new showcase, steadily raising expectations sky-high. Its biggest allure lies in the game’s unbounded direction, seemingly drawing inspiration from many popular titles and adding extra gameplay features based on a “why not?” mindset. What’s even more impressive is that, despite this approach, the game doesn’t feel recycled as one might expect; it looks incredibly fresh and original instead.
Sure, there are some Witcher 3 vibes throughout, with the focus on a wandering mercenary willing to take on monsters, but Crimson Desert is shaping up to be much more than that. Full-scale castle sieges, inventive boss battles, a robust companion system, destructible environments, a cinematic narrative, plus mechanical dragons, bullet-hell sequences, particle-based puzzles reminiscent of Mass Effect, and even robots for some reason — it’s hard to resist the sheer breadth of possibilities packed into Crimson Desert.
Ananta
Release Date: Coming In 2026
Unlike Crimson Desert, Ananta definitely gives off a feeling of recycling the familiar, with some of the game’s shown features and entire gameplay sections looking like straight-up rip-offs from other titles, from Spider-Man 2 and Uncharted 4 to GTA 6. While it remains to be seen whether the project will face any legal issues on its way to launch, this over-the-top mix of open-world gameplay and wild ideas that don’t always fit together already has its own army of fans.
Ananta’s secret weapon is that there are simply too few open-world games of this scale set in a modern mega-city, which instantly makes it stand out. If the team manages to stitch together all these mechanics into one seamless adventure focused on freedom and fun, topped with flashy anime aesthetics and memorable character design, Ananta seems poised for huge success. Hopefully, it can live up to its wild promises.
DokeV
Release Date: To Be Announced
Bright, energetic, chaotic, and fun, DokeV feels like the open-world game fans of Pokemon and Palworld have been dreaming of for years. With its promise of a shared open world packed with creature companions known as Dokebi, the game instantly grabs attention, while its striking visuals, quirky characters, and catchy audio design help it stand out from the crowd.
DokeV’s fluid, effects-heavy combat teases some spectacular large-scale battles with unique creature abilities, while traversal and exploration look just as entertaining. Scooters, flying umbrellas, and water-gliding boards offer all kinds of creative ways to move across its expansive world. Like with Ananta, there are some legal concerns about DokeV leaning too close to Pokemon’s formula (a common problem), plus the long silence around development doesn’t help. Still, here’s hoping the game really is coming, and when it does, it’ll fire on all cylinders.
The Blood Of Dawnwalker
Release Date: Coming In 2026
The Blood of Dawnwalker is an intriguing open-world project that could easily turn into one of 2026’s sleeper hits. It’s the debut title from a new studio packed with CDPR veterans who previously worked on The Witcher series, so it’s no surprise that it looks somewhat familiar. Still, the game hooks with its vampiric twist that might just inject some fresh blood into the open-world RPG genre.
Players take on the role of a human-vampire hybrid in a dark fantasy world, with day and night gameplay loops entirely driven by player choices, and a clever time-based twist, as there’s only a limited number of days to fulfill the main goal. Even if The Blood of Dawnwalker doesn’t quite have the flair of a triple-A release, it looks better with every new showcase, and there’s little doubt it will deliver strong worldbuilding, memorable characters, and well-crafted quests.
ARK 2
Release Date: To Be Announced
Unfortunately, ARK 2 has been off the radar for the past few years, but Studio Wildcard assures that active development is still underway, so fans just need to stay patient. As a sequel to the wildly popular ARK, the follow-up promises to shake up the dinosaur open-world formula in a big way, introducing a range of groundbreaking, maybe even overly ambitious features. Here’s hoping the team pulls it off.
Powered by Unreal Engine 5, ARK 2 is set to deliver stunning visuals, detailed environments, and prehistoric creatures the size of buildings with unmatched realism. The game also aims to introduce multiple dynamic gameplay layers, including sensory-based creature AI. Other major improvements include advanced crafting and building systems, smooth traversal in a shared world, deeper player interactions, and much-improved combat. With a project this massive, it’s no surprise development is taking its time.
Beyond Good & Evil 2
Release Date: To Be Announced
Yes, Beyond Good & Evil 2 has a pretty good chance of never being released, given its troubled decade-long development and years of complete silence. Still, Ubisoft insists the game hasn’t been officially canceled, so let’s hope some work on this incredibly ambitious project is still happening. Maybe the developers have simply been waiting for technology to finally catch up with their vision.
Easily one of the most ambitious games ever announced, Beyond Good & Evil 2 always looked like Ubisoft bit off more than it could chew. From its massive multiplanetary scope to explorable worlds filled not with empty wastelands but with dense, bustling cities, and seamless transitions between space and planet surface — it’s a far cry from what fans of the original ever expected. Combined with its distinctive universe, unique characters, and groovy designs, BG&E 2 still feels like a dream project, maybe one that’s just a little too good to be real.
Star Citizen
Release Date: Squadron 42 Is Coming In 2026
Another long-term project rivaling the scale and ambition of Beyond Good & Evil 2, Star Citizen is like its more “realistic” counterpart, aiming to deliver a sense of space exploration on a level never seen before. Constantly expanding in scope, ambition, and budget (now surpassing $876 million raised), it’s undeniable that Star Citizen looks incredible, standing out with its uncompromising attention to every detail.
Unlike Beyond Good & Evil 2, though, Star Citizen is slowly but surely taking shape and has been playable in early form for quite some time. Its modular structure tries to include everything players could want from a Starfield-style experience, from piloting ships with unmatched freedom and realism, on-foot combat, and cinematic storytelling, to explorable planets, and a player-driven economy — and that’s just scratching the surface. The plan is to finally release its long-awaited story campaign, Squadron 42, sometime in 2026, and it’s already long overdue.
