Role-playing games have been in something of a golden period on PC. Between the critical success of Baldur’s Gate 3, the continued strength of FromSoftware, and an Xbox first-party pipeline that is heavily weighted toward RPGs, the genre is more prominent than it has been in years. 2026 has a lineup that includes long-awaited sequels, ambitious new IPs, and indie titles that have been quietly building anticipation.
Here are the ten most significant RPGs arriving on PC in 2026.
1. Fable
Playground Games’ reboot of the Fable franchise is, at this point, one of the most anticipated Xbox games in memory. Announced at the Xbox Games Showcase in 2020, the game has been in development at Playground, best known for the Forza Horizon series, for several years. The original Fable trilogy defined a tone for British RPGs: light, irreverent, morally flexible, and built around a world with genuine personality.
The reboot is set in a reimagined Albion that borrows from the visual language of English fairy tale illustration. The tone appears to retain the humour and whimsy of the originals while updating the systems for a modern open-world RPG. It is available on Xbox Series X and PC via Game Pass, which means the cost of entry for existing subscribers is zero.
If Playground has translated their expertise in building compelling open worlds to an RPG context, Fable could be a defining release of the year.
2. The Outer Worlds 2
Obsidian Entertainment’s sequel to their 2019 first-person RPG was announced at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase. The original The Outer Worlds delivered on Obsidian’s reputation for strong writing, reactive quest design, and companion characters with genuine personality, even if its world was smaller and less technically impressive than contemporaries.
The sequel is expected to address the scope concerns of the original while retaining what made it distinctive. Obsidian have demonstrated with Avowed that they can build larger, more detailed worlds, and applying that production scale to a follow-up in The Outer Worlds’ satirical corporate dystopia setting is a very promising combination.
Day one on Game Pass, as with all Xbox first-party releases.
3. Clockwork Revolution
Clockwork Revolution, developed by inXile Entertainment (Wasteland 3, Torment: Tides of Numenera), is an action RPG set in an alternate history steampunk city with time manipulation mechanics. The reveal trailer showed a world visually reminiscent of BioShock Infinite’s floating city of Columbia, and the time-rewinding powers suggest a systems-driven RPG with meaningful cause-and-effect consequences.
inXile have a track record of delivering thoughtful RPGs with strong writing and moral complexity, and Clockwork Revolution appears to be their most ambitious project. The time manipulation mechanic, which allows you to rewind events to change outcomes, could create a genuinely novel RPG structure if the quest design is built around it properly.
Another Xbox first-party day-one Game Pass title, and one of the most original RPG concepts announced in recent years.
4. Exodus
Exodus is the debut game from Archetype Entertainment, a studio founded by veterans of the Mass Effect and Kotor series at BioWare. The sci-fi RPG casts you as a Traveller navigating a universe where relativity plays a central role in the narrative: every trip you take through space passes years on the planets you leave behind.
The premise is unusually interesting for a mainstream RPG: the consequences of relativistic travel, watching civilisations age and relationships decay while you remain young, gives the story a built-in source of emotional stakes. Matthew McConaughey is among the confirmed cast, which at least confirms a significant investment in narrative production.
The pedigree of the development team gives Exodus more credibility than most new IP announcements. These are people who understand how to build the kind of companion relationships and reactive storytelling that define BioWare’s best work.
5. Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines 2
The original Vampire: The Masquerade — Bloodlines, released in 2004, is one of the most beloved cult RPGs in the genre’s history: a vampire power fantasy set in nocturnal Seattle, with exceptional writing and quest design undermined by a rushed, bug-ridden second half. A sequel has been in development since 2019, changing developers from Hardsuit Labs to The Chinese Room along the way.
The Chinese Room, known for Dear Esther and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, is a very different studio from Hardsuit Labs, and their version of Bloodlines 2 has been rebuilt from the earlier iteration’s foundations. The setting has moved from Seattle to Seattle (consistent) but with a different protagonist structure: you play a powerful, ancient vampire rather than a freshly-turned newborn. This changes the power dynamic of the original significantly.
Whether The Chinese Room’s Bloodlines 2 can capture the original’s cult appeal while being a coherent, finished game is the central question. The fanbase for the first game is intensely dedicated, and expectations are complicated by the years of delays and developer changes.
6. South of Midnight
Compulsion Games’ Southern Gothic action RPG was one of the more striking announcements in recent Xbox showcases. Set in the American Deep South, steeped in folklore and mythology, the game follows Hazel, a young woman navigating a world of magic and tragedy after a hurricane devastates her community.
The visual style, inspired by stop-motion animation and Southern folk art, is unlike anything else in the RPG space. The magic system draws on Southern folklore traditions: conjure, root work, and the kind of localised mythology that rarely appears in mainstream games. Compulsion Games have a track record of creating games with strong atmospheres (Contrast, We Happy Few), and South of Midnight looks like their most tonally coherent project yet.
7. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
Sandfall Interactive, a French studio, produced one of the most visually stunning RPG reveals in recent years with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. A turn-based RPG set in a world of surreal Belle Époque aesthetics, where a being called the Paintress wakes every year and erases those of a certain age from existence, the game’s world-building premise is genuinely original.
The combat blends turn-based mechanics with real-time reactions, requiring timing inputs during enemy attacks to parry or reduce damage. The result is an approach that keeps the player active during enemy turns, which addresses one of turn-based RPG’s most common pacing problems.
The visual ambition of the game, which blends European fine art aesthetics with JRPG-style party combat, puts it in a design space that very few games occupy.
8. The Witcher 4
CD Projekt Red’s next major project, codenamed Polaris and set in a new era of The Witcher universe, is in active development. A full 2026 release is not expected, but a substantial reveal and potential release window announcement during 2026 is likely given the development timeline. The game features Ciri rather than Geralt as the protagonist, representing the first time in the series that a female character anchors the main story.
It is on this list because when The Witcher 4 arrives, it will be one of the most significant RPG releases in years. CD Projekt Red’s reputation, though complicated by Cyberpunk 2077’s launch, was substantially restored by that game’s post-patch quality and Phantom Liberty. Expectations for what they do with the next Witcher chapter are very high.
9. Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate
Square Enix’s Dragon Quest XII has been in development for several years and represents the most significant directorial change in the franchise’s history: series creator Yuji Horii has spoken about a more mature, darker tone than previous entries, and the shift from the traditional turn-based combat of the series is expected to bring real-time elements.
Dragon Quest has historically had limited PC presence in the West, but the PC releases of Dragon Quest XI S established a viable platform for the franchise, and XII is expected to continue that. For JRPG fans on PC, Dragon Quest XII is among the most anticipated of the Japanese RPG entries that will eventually reach the platform.
10. Clockwork Kingdom / New Larian Studios Project
Larian Studios, fresh from Baldur’s Gate 3’s extraordinary commercial and critical success, has confirmed it is working on not one but two new projects: an internal IP and a collaboration. The details remain undisclosed, but Larian have demonstrated the ability to build the most expansive, reactive, and well-written RPG released in the last decade.
Whatever Larian builds next will arrive with enormous anticipation and a studio at the absolute peak of its powers. An announcement in 2026 is likely. An actual release may come later, but the moment Larian reveals what they are working on, it will become one of the most-watched RPG projects in the industry.
Several entries on this list are confirmed in development but do not yet have precise 2026 release dates. RPG development cycles are long and some titles may arrive in late 2026 or shift into 2027. We will update this list as release windows are confirmed.
