Okay, some predictions for 2026 to give me fodder at the end of the next year as I marvel at just how inaccurate I was:
Tabletop Gaming Prediction: gaming as a hobby will remain healthy
Take a look at ENworld's 2026 Most Anticipated Poll here. Holy cow, I recognize or know of 13 of the games listed, and 6 I only know indirectly from the IPs they are covering (Invincible, Assassin's Creed, etc.). The rest are all interesting mystery boxes. I am presuming this high volume of titles scheduled for 2026 is a sign of a healthy and diverse array of options in the hobby.
Although I don't know a lot about many of the listed games, one thing I don't see is very many suggesting a D&D 5E or D20 compatibility origin...maybe one or two by name I can tell, and it does also look like some venerable OSR games are getting refreshes in 2026.
All told, I think it is safe to say tabletop RPGs will continue to be very popular. It helps that, regardless of the economic dumpster fire the rest of the world turns in to, that RPGs as a hobby are ultimately very cheap and easy to enjoy, with the highest dollar to hour of entertainment value ratio you will find pretty much anywhere.
Computer Gaming Prediction: the dumpster fire is just getting started, but indies and AA will thrive
Unlike tabletop RPGs, computer gaming can be very expensive on the hardware side, and it really looks like there's a quiet apocalypse brewing due to the severe impact AI technologies are having on both the programming side of things and the scarcity issue with hardware. I think more than any industry visible to the public game developers will find this hits them hardest of all, as big studios and their publishers scale back manpower for AI, AI sucks up all the RAM cards out there, and people continue to rebel against flagrant use of slop in games, especially Games as a Service. Oh, and Microsoft and competitors will push hard to get everyone to go full cloud gaming, with the idea being subscription-basd "own nothing" models as the new future.
Meanwhile, this will give more space for smaller indie titles to bloom, and we may see more AA titles get traction as the really big triple-A developers get stymied in their shift to AI. Also, everyone will be relying on their currently owned hardware, as sales plummet because people can't afford decent rigs anymore, and the cheap alternatives (seriously, it looks like 8 GB RAM and Core I5 processors are all that's affordable at this very moment) are just too low powered to be worth it. In short....its going to suck in the gaming space while Big Tech tries to make it all about AI and freemium services where you play on the cloud.
Okay, that's it for my conservative predictions for 2026! Now for some personal predictions:
1. I will play a lot more Pathfinder and Starfinder in 2026, due primarly to the fact that I am getting old and stuck in my ways.
2. I will get at least one campaign in with Tales of the Valiant because I know the Player's Guide 2 will be an icebreaker for my group that feels TotV doesn't have enough player content yet.
3. I will run another Mothership campaign because Mothership is fun.
4. My son will run another Alien RPG campaign and I will lose at least three characters as is tradition.
5. I will try and might even succeed in running a new BRP campaign and Call of Cthulhu campaign.
6. I will manage to get at least some game time in with 13th Age 2nd Edition, but whether it usurps Pathfinder and Tales of the Valiant remains to be seen.
7. I will run some Cypher System when the new edition arrives, assuming it arrives in 2026. MCG has a pretty good track record on fulfilling most kickstartrs timely though so I feel confident this will happen.
8. I will continue to get an abnormal level of gaming done due to the excess of handheld PCs I own. I will probably try to sell a couple of them as I only really need two now: the MSI Claw 8 AI+ and the Legion Go 2. And I have a soft spot for the Legion Go S.
Okay! That's it! See you all in the New Year!
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