With June's stream of seemingly endless gaming events over, all eyes have shifted to the next big convention, Gamescom. This year's Gamescom will take place between August 24 and August 29, bringing back one of Europe's biggest in-person gaming conventions. Kicking off Gamescom will be Geoff Keighley's annual Gamescom Opening Night Live presentation, which will be packed with game announcements and reveals. One of the first games for Gamescom ONL is now confirmed to be Return to Monkey Island.The announcement was made directly by Keighley on his Twitter account. Keighley told his followers to watch Gamescom Opening Night Live and they'll get to see a new look at Return to Monkey Island. It's unclear if the new look will be story focused or if it will offer a glimpse of Return to Monkey Island's point-and-click adventure gameplay. All that's certain is a new trailer will be featured as part of the Gamescom video presentation.Return to Monkey Island was announced in April earlier this year. It's a follow-up to the Monkey Island games originally released over 30 years ago and is confirmed to be the new canonical third entry in the series. Further, Return to Monkey Island is being developed by two of the Monkey Island series' original creators. Ron Gilbert was the original game director for The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2. Dave Grossman, a writer and designer for the first two Monkey Island games, is also back.
What Monkey Island fans will be hoping for at Gamescom is a finalized release date for the new game. Prior Return to Monkey Island announcements have said the game will arrive in 2022, but have left a specific date up in the air as development continued. It's possible that publisher Devolver Digital and the Return to Monkey Island development team are now confident in the game's status and are ready to move forward with a release date. Of course, it's also possible that a delay could be in store.
While Return to Monkey Island is one of the first games confirmed for Gamescom Opening Night Live, it's not the only one. Other games confirmed for the show include Goat Simulator 3, Sonic Frontiers, and the new sci-fi IP from Subnautica developer Unknown Worlds. Expect more announcements over the coming days and weeks, too.
Gamescom Opening Night Live will officially air on August 23 at 11:00 AM PT/2:00 PM ET, and gamers can expect more than just the next big reveal for Return to Monkey Island.
Return to Monkey Island releases in 2022 on PC and Switch.