Fifteen days. That's the gap between GTA 6 on Thursday, November 19, and the first big game of December, Monster Hunter Wilds on Switch 2, on the 4th. No publisher with a serious budget likes standing next to a phenomenon like that, and one look at the calendar shows the month arranged around that fear. That's my reading. Nobody has said it out loud. What's left is a month of returns. One game leaves early access and goes free, a Layton announced in 2023 and delayed along the way, an anime adaptation arriving eight years after the last one, and a queue of new versions of games we already know. The Switch 2 gets the biggest slice: counting only well-known titles, at least eight land between the 1st and the 10th. The dates below are the ones confirmed as of October 26. In games, that's never a guarantee. ## Path of Exile 2 Stops Costing Money to Try On Friday, December 11, Path of Exile 2 officially leaves early access. It entered on December 6, 2024, so that's two years and five days. What changes that day is bigger than the "1.0" label suggests: the game becomes free on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series, without the supporter pack that served as the entry ticket until now. Grinding Gear Games gave the date at Gamescom's opening show on August 25. The trailer highlighted the Duelist, the first sword-wielding melee class, and the final version brings the last two campaign acts, the ones that close the story. Anyone who pre-registers on the site by December 10 (Pacific time) gets rewards that unlock as sign-ups grow, including exclusive effects and a pet. I think this changes the nature of the month. Until now, price was the barrier for anyone who hadn't picked the game up. On December 11 the barrier becomes time, and December's time is already mortgaged to everything else on this list. ## Monster Hunter Wilds Reaches Switch 2 After 21 Months Capcom confirmed the date, December 4, during the September 9 Nintendo Direct. The game launched on February 28, 2025 on PS5, Xbox Series and PC, and the Switch 2 version includes everything released since as free updates: the Grand Hub, the return of Lagiacrus, the Final Fantasy XIV collaboration. There's local wireless play between consoles and online cross-play. The Standard Edition costs $39.99, with a $29.99 pre-order price running until December 3. The Gold Edition, with cosmetic content, is $79.99, and the physical Deluxe Edition is $39.99. In Japan there's also a bundle with the console and the digital game for 61,980 yen, for the Japanese model only. What nobody knows is how it runs. When Capcom announced the date it hadn't revealed resolution or frame rate, and one review I read points to PC performance and crashes as the game's biggest flaw. A free demo (the Prologue) is promised before launch, with no date yet. If the Switch 2 is your only machine, it's the only test that matters before spending the $29.99. The Ascendance expansion is set for 2027, and Capcom says it's coming to Switch 2 too. ## Layton, Finally? Professor Layton and the New World of Steam launches December 10 on PS5, Switch, Switch 2 and PC. It was first shown in 2023, slipped past its 2025 window, and only got a firm date at the September Nintendo Direct. The story takes place a year after The Unwound Future, in Steam Bison, an American city where steam engines have outstripped London's, and Luke writes to Layton asking for help. It's the first mainline Layton where the two are back together since Azran Legacy in 2014. The trailer promises the biggest puzzle collection in the series, and part of it comes from QuizKnock, a Japanese entertainment-and-knowledge team. Level-5 has had rough years, and a series that lived on Nintendo handhelds now returns on four platforms at once. Whether the puzzles live up to the expectation remains to be seen. ## Attack on Titan 3 Arrives Three Days Early for Those Who Pay More Omega Force wants this to be the series finale: it tells the anime's story from start to finish, as an action game built on the three-dimensional maneuver gear that defined the earlier ones. It launches December 10 on PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2 and PC (Steam), eight years after the second. The Digital Deluxe edition gets 72 hours of early access, which in practice puts those players in the game on the 7th. Anyone with saves from the second game or Final Battle gets bonuses in the new one. MAPPA will produce the opening, but only later, in an update. ## Thursday, December 3 Four heavyweight games land this day: Rayman Legends Retold (Ubisoft), Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in a Switch 2 edition, Dragon Quest Monsters: The Withered World (Square Enix, a turn-based RPG on five platforms) and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War IV, PC only. Aeterna Lucis also arrives, and two days earlier come Hela: of Mice & Magic (December 1) and The Ascent Ultimate Edition on Switch 2. Three of the four lean on a name that already existed. The original Rayman is from 2013, Xenoblade 3 from 2022. Dawn of War IV is the only one continuing a strategy series, and it has the PC all to itself. ## The Rest of the Month The 11th is a Friday. Monster Hunter will already be a week into its hunts and Layton a day into its puzzles. Anyone with two weeks of holiday in December is fine. Anyone with only weekends will have to choose, and the choice doesn't look easy. *Dates confirmed on 10/26/2026 from press releases by Koei Tecmo, Capcom and Grinding Gear Games, and release schedules from Game Informer, VGC and GameSpot.*