It’s shaping up to be another record-breaking year for Valve-owned digital storefront Steam thanks to massive games like Elden Ring and Starfield, and new hardware like the Steam Deck. Last year was a sleepier one when it came to PC blockbusters due to covid-19-driven game delays, but 2021’s loss is this year’s gain. From ports and early access launches to massive expansions and a new console, here’s what’s coming to Steam in 2022.
Read More: Valve Says It Hasn’t Found A Game That The Steam Deck Can’t Handle
Monster Hunter Rise
Capcom’s multiplayer loot RPG was a hit on Nintendo Switch last year and will now be available to Steam players in record time thanks to the company’s increasing emphasis on PC gaming. While the port handles great, Monster Hunter Rise hasn’t exactly blown people away with its minimal graphical upgrades over the Switch version. Thankfully, the game’s air-grappling wirebugs remain intact and as fun as ever, while features like team communication are also easier on PC.
Release Date: January 12, 2022
God of War
2018’s Game Awards Game of the Year hits PC for the first time in 2022 as Sony continues to bring over its hit PlayStation exclusives. Sony Santa Monica’s Norse take on Kratos plays great and looks even better on PC as well, making it the definitive way to experience the roughly 20-hour journey in some reviewers’ eyes. Unlike the console version, God of War on PC can sport over 60 FPS and 4K resolution at the same time. Let the no-hit runs commence.
Release Date: January 14, 2022
Dying Light 2
Zombies, loot, and meaningful choices. That’s what developer Techland promises for its open-world sequel and what it seems like it may have managed to do, at least based on earlier previews. Dying Light 2 won’t actually end up taking you 500 hours to beat, but if it’s anything like the first Dying Light, more than a few Steam players will log as many hours parkouring through its macabre theme park.
Release Date: February 4, 2022
Total War: Warhammer III
It turns out Warhammer was a perfect match for the Total War series, and Total War: Warhammer III could shape up to be the best of those spin-offs yet with a new hybrid faction, Daemons of Chaos, and a new campaign through four Realms of Chaos. Creative Assembly announced it’s changing up the standard tax-and-conquer strategy for the new story missions and adding a new horde mode called Survival Battles to test players’ patience and tactics. Total War: Warhammer II came in third in Kotaku’s ranking of the entire series. We’ll see where its successor lands later this year.
Release Date: February 17, 2022
Destiny 2: The Witch Queen
Destiny 2 gets its fourth major expansion this year and with it a bunch of new annual and seasonal content for players to dig into. Bungie has promised one of its most ambitious story campaigns to-date for the loot shooter, alongside a ton of new weapons and the addition of the series’ first crafting system. The second chapter in a four-part series, The Witch Queen won’t have all the answers, but it culminates in the half-way point of Destiny’s current Light and Darkness saga.
Release Date: February 22, 2022
Elden Ring
Already Steam’s most wishlisted game, Elden Ring, AKA open world Dark Souls, AKA grim and dark Breath of the Wild, is finally coming out. There will be double-jumping horses, magical pots, and seemingly no shortage of fascinating environmental storytelling beats to uncover. FromSoftware’s narrative collaboration with Game of Thrones writer George R. R. Martin could prove to be the developer’s most ambitious game yet. It’s clearly already the most anticipated one.
Release Date: February 25, 2022
Steam Deck
Valve’s new attempt at gaming hardware was originally due out last December but got pushed into 2022 over supply chain issues. The first units of its seven inch display, AMD APU-powered Steam Deck are now expected to ship by the end of February, with more following through the rest of the year based on the order they were pre-ordered in. Valve has said most games will run on the handheld at launch, though questions remain about a few big titles like Destiny 2 and Apex Legends over lingering SteamOS compatibility issues.
Shadow Warrior 3
Beloved Steam slaughterfest Shadow Warrior 2 is about to get a sequel. Developer Flying Wild Hog said it’s going back to the basics of the first game in the trilogy and just “upgrading everything.” A first-person looter, shooter, slasher, Shadow Warrior 3 doesn’t look like it’s spending too much time on anything frivolous like a story, but it does look like it will be as action-packed as ever.
Release Date: March 1, 2022
Forspoken
Square Enix’s open world superhero action game combines hyper-realistic graphics with dragons and magic. It sort of looks like an Infamous game inspired by YA fantasy novels rather than comic books. Forspoken stars a Black protagonist, and despite some cringe-inducing remarks from the development team, it could have a promising story to tell. It’ll cost you though. Following in the footsteps of Final Fantasy VII Remake, Forspoken will be the Japanese publisher’s second game to cost $70 on PC.
Release Date: May 24, 2022
Redfall
The first game revealed after Microsoft’s acquisition of Bethesda, cooperative vampire shooter Redfall will be the first Arkane game Xbox can truly call its own. But thankfully that’s not stopping it from being on PC. While the 2021 E3 trailer looked nice, we still haven’t seen gameplay or heard much about what the game will be outside of a multiplayer game with live service-y legs. We’ll know soon enough, unless it ends up getting delayed to 2023.
Release Date: Summer 2022
Scorn
First-person survival horror “biopunk” adventure game Scorn turned heads when it was revealed back in 2020. You play as a skinless humanoid exploring an unsettling, H. R. Giger-inspired alien planet. Originating on Kickstarter, the project’s creators dared backers to ask for refunds when the game was delayed last year. One very long apology later, Scorn is currently aiming to arrive on PC and other platforms before the end of 2022.
Release Date: October 2022
Starfield
Massive interplanetary sci-fi RPG Starfield will reportedly take The Elder Scrolls open-world formula to space. Playing as a customizable member of the Constellation Exploration Force, you’ll navigate an uneasy truce between competing factions, mingle with the inhabitants of different colonies, and read through more than twice the dialogue of Skyrim, if you’re up for it. Bethesda’s dubbed the inspiration for the game “NASA Punk” and said it’s been using an updated version of its Fallout 4 game engine to help breathe more life into NPCs driving its world.
Release Date: November 11, 2022
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl
Originally set to come out early this year, Stalker 2 was recently delayed until the end of 2022. It won’t have NFTs, thank god, but it will likely feature apocalyptic survival gameplay, a “seamless open world,” and factions to negotiate among. The Stalker revival has been cursed from day one, but its trailer at the E3 2021 Xbox showcase was impressive. Hopefully the demons have been exorcized.
Release Date: December 8, 2022
Gotham Knights
Another cooperative action game and a casualty of covid-19 delays, WB Games Montreal’s latest turn at the Batman wheel will focus on everyone but the caped crusader. Players will be can team up as Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, or Red Hood to takedown the Court of Owls after the ancient cabal of conspiratorial elites following the apparent assassination of both Bruce Wayne and Commissioner Gordon. Gotham Knights is not a live-service game, the developers promise, and can be completed solo and offline.
Release Date: TBD 2022
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
For Suicide Squad, the creators of Batman: Arkham,Rocksteady Studios, traded the Dark Knight for some of his foes who are tasked with defeating a brain-washed Justice League and the villain responsible, Braniac. Players take the reigns of Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and King Shark, either swapping between them in single-player or as a full squad in multiplayer. It’s a shooter that looks more action-packed than the brooding detective work the Arkham games were beloved for but will likely be more than capable of pushing high-end PCs to their limits.
Release Date: TBD 2022
Uncharted: Legacy Of Thieves Collection
Out in January on PlayStation 5, Sony hasn’t yet revealed exactly when its remastered version of Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy will come to PC, but the hope is they look absolutely stunning when they do. While Uncharted 4 has the biggest set pieces, Lost Legacy is the bigger game, using its smaller scope to tell a more focused story free of series protagonist Nathan Drake’s globe trotting antics.
Release Date: TBD 2022
A Plague Tale: Requiem
The first Plague Tale was a disturbing stealth adventure game that hit far above its weight. Requiem seems poised to expand on that narrative ambition with new cities, stealth mechanics, and of course. new rats. Protagonists Amica and Hugo have gotten upgrades as well, from new powers to new crossbows. If developer Asobo Studio doesn’t bite off more than it can chew and it doesn’t get delayed, A Plague Tale: Requiem could be one of 2022’s sleeper hits.
Release Date: TBD 2022.
Kerbal Space Program 2
How do you make a follow-up to one of the best space sims ever? Take a really long time, apparently. Kerbal Space Program 2 was originally set to come out in 2020. It’s now set to release in 2022, though it still doesn’t have a firm launch window. The physics-based game about building and launching spacecrafts wants to be more accessible than its predecessor, which despite being a best-seller was impenetrable for many. Kerbal 1 isn’t getting any more updates though, so Kerbal 2 can’t come out soon enough.
Release Date: TBD 2022
More Games
Steam is a massive store with dozens of new games coming out every week, of course. Here’s just a smattering of some other upcoming games slated to arrive sometime in 2022 that are worth keeping an eye on:
- Babylon’s Fall
- Citizen Sleeper
- She Dreams Elsewhere
- Have A Nice Death
- Neon White
- Sea of Stars
- Somerville
- Planet of Lana
- Replaced
- We Are Okay
- Thirsty Suitors
- Oxenfree II: Lost Signals
Stuff Not Coming To Steam
While most PC games are coming to Steam, a few major ones will be Epic Games Store exclusives:
- Rainbow Six Extraction: January 20, 2022
- Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin: March 18, 2022
- Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong: May 19, 2022
- Saints Row: August 23, 2022
Some games are sure to be delayed, while new ones are and go live immediately. Some of Steam’s biggest games in any given year tend to be the ones that seem to come out of nowhere, like 2021’s Valheim. It’s possible Valve could be holding onto some other surprises as well, like the announcement of a new first-party game or update to its VR plans. Maybe 2022 will be the year Steam finally introduces a Netflix-like subscription library of its own.
In the meantime, it’s a safe bet that seasonal demo festivals and sales events will continue. Here’s roughly went to expect new Steam sales based on previous years:
- Steam Lunar New Year Sale : End of January.
- Steam Golden Week Sale: End of April.
- Steam Spring Sale: Late May.
- Steam Summer Sale: End of June.
- Steam Halloween Sale: end of October.
- Steam Autumn Sale: End of November.
- Steam Winter Sale: Late December.
