Last updated 18 July 2026
Three notable releases land in the back half of July, and they have more in common than the calendar suggests. All three are revivals. None of them are reinventions. That distinction is turning into the defining pattern of 2026.
Splatoon Raiders — 23 July
After four years of quiet, Splatoon returns — but not as Splatoon 4. Raiders is a spin-off: a single-player treasure-hunting adventure with optional co-op for up to four players. For a series built almost entirely on competitive multiplayer, that is a significant pivot.
It is also less of a gamble than it looks. Splatoon’s single-player campaigns were always its quietly excellent component, buried behind the multiplayer that sold it. Raiders bets a whole game on that.
Why it matters: spin-offs are where Nintendo experiments before committing. If Raiders works, its structure, traversal and co-op design will shape Splatoon 4. Worth watching even if you have never touched a splat charger.
Halo: Campaign Evolved — 28 July
The other long-rumoured revival arrives two weeks after Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced posted the series’ best launch in thirteen years.
That timing set a bar. Black Flag Resynced sold 2 million copies on day one and scored 85 on OpenCritic by being faithful rather than clever. Campaign Evolved will be measured against that, on a franchise carrying considerably more emotional baggage.
Why it matters: Halo does not need reimagining, it needs respecting. If Campaign Evolved resists the urge to fix 2001, Xbox gets the win its rough July needs.
Final Fantasy X 25th Anniversary — Switch 2
Square Enix marks the anniversary with an enhanced port: improved visuals, a high-speed mode, and a random encounter toggle.
That toggle is quietly the whole story. It concedes that what made JRPGs feel long in 2001 does not have to survive into 2026, without touching what made them matter in the first place. Blitzball, mercifully, remains untouched.
Why it matters: it is the clearest example yet of respectful modernisation — changing the friction, not the substance.
The pattern worth noticing
Black Flag, Halo, Spira. Three franchises, three publishers, one approach: restore the thing people remember, remove the parts that only ever existed because of hardware limits, and change nothing else.
2026 keeps proving that thesis. The games rewarding publishers this year are not the ones that reinvented themselves. Whether that is a healthy industry or a cautious one is a separate argument, and a fair one.
For everything else dated this year, see our release calendar.