Welcome to May — Saros Is Game of the Year, Forza Horizon 6 Is 18 Days Away, and This Month Is Stacked

April is done. It went out with Saros launching to extraordinary reviews, Invincible VS earning solid fighting game scores, and Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred confirming everything that reviewers said about it before launch. Now it's May 1, and while the dust is still settling from one of the most remarkable gaming months in recent memory, the calendar is already filling up with what comes next.

The State of Play: April's Final Report Card

Saros closed April as the month's undisputed game of the year. The 88 Metacritic, 92 OpenCritic scores held through the full review wave, with 105 critic reviews now in. CGMagazine called it "head and shoulders above Returnal." Game Informer's 93/100 described moving, shooting, and improving as "an unequivocal joy." Eurogamer's 4/5 acknowledged "two steps forward and one step back" on the narrative side, but landed firmly positive on the action. Housemarque has delivered the best PS5 exclusive of the year.

Invincible VS earned a 79 on OpenCritic in its first wave of reviews — a solid debut for a licensed fighting game, and arguably the best the franchise has ever been represented in interactive form. The consistent message: the tag mechanics and online play are excellent, the story mode is short and thin. TheGamer's 4/5 called it "the game that the series has deserved for a long time." Push Square described it as "comic book carnage that comes alive online." GamesRadar used the phrase "joyfully gory." For fighting game fans and Invincible devotees, it's doing its job.

Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred launched to an 89 Metacritic and has sustained it. Day two community reports confirmed the Warlock builds are already broken, War Plans is landing as the best endgame structure the game has had, and the Skovos campaign is being called the best story in Diablo 4's history.

What May Looks Like

May's headline is Forza Horizon 6, arriving May 19 on Xbox and PC, free on Game Pass from day one. The Japan setting is confirmed — Mount Fuji, Tokyo expressways, coastal highways, full seasonal rotation. The Horizon festival is stretching from the iconic downtown streets of Tokyo City all the way to the snowy Japanese Alps, introducing the most dense and vertical map yet. Premium Edition early access starts May 15 for those willing to pay the $129.99 entry.

007: First Light from IO Interactive — the Hitman studio — lands May 28. A James Bond origin story. Lana Del Rey composed the theme. The most anticipated Bond game in years.

Mixtape opens May 7. Set to the soundtrack of a generation, Mixtape follows three friends on one final adventure, exploring a mixtape of memories and the greatest hits of the teenage experience. Narrative-first, music-driven, from ex-Dontnod developers.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle arrives on Switch 2 on May 12, giving Nintendo players access to Machine Games' acclaimed action-adventure that launched earlier this year on Xbox and PC.

Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight closes the month on May 29 — open-world Gotham, multiple Batman eras, and the most ambitious Lego Batman entry in years.

The GTA 6 Countdown

May 1 puts Grand Theft Auto 6 at 202 days from its November 19 launch. Take-Two confirmed summer marketing. Trailer 3, gameplay footage, and pre-order opening are all expected before August. The quiet won't last much longer.

Capcom's Wild Month

April left Capcom in a position no publisher has occupied in recent memory: three critical hits in four months (Resident Evil Requiem, Monster Hunter Stories 3, Pragmata) with a combined commercial performance that analysts are calling the best single-publisher run in the industry's history. Onimusha: Way of the Sword is reportedly in its final stages. What comes next from Osaka is one of the more interesting questions heading into summer.

The Bottom Line

April was extraordinary. May has the receipts to match it. Get some rest — Forza Horizon 6 is 18 days away, and it's free on Game Pass.

🎬 TikTok: "April is over and Saros won game of the year — here's everything happening in gaming in May 2026" | 📱 Tweet: "May 1 gaming roundup: Saros ended April as GOTY contender (88 Meta), Invincible VS 79 OC, Diablo 4 89 Meta. Now Forza Horizon 6 in 18 days, 007 First Light in 27, Lego Batman at month end. May is not slowing down 🎮 [LINK] #Gaming #May2026 #Saros #ForzaHorizon6"