This week at gamescom, we lastly revealed Gravhounds, the primary sport from our seven-person unbiased studio, Octopus Panic – it’s set to launch into Sport Preview on XBOX Sequence X|S and XBOX on PC on November 2, 2026, and shall be obtainable day one with XBOX Sport Move.
We’re a small group, however between us we’ve spent years making a lot greater video games. Throughout the studio, we’ve labored on franchises like Halo, Battlefield, and Star Wars, together with video games like Full Spectrum Warrior, Def Jam: Battle for NY, and The Saboteur. We began Octopus Panic to get small once more: to experiment, have enjoyable, and construct methods that go away room for gamers to shock us.
The canine got here early. All of us love canine, and their personalities and breed traits gave us lots to work with. From there, it wasn’t exhausting to think about a future company seeing those self same qualities and deciding canine would make the proper workforce.
So, in Gravhounds, you’re a bio-engineered canine constructed for harmful industrial work, stranded along with your crew on the far facet of the galaxy. Getting residence means salvaging alien worlds, constructing questionable infrastructure, and surviving issues significantly greater on the meals chain than you might be.
Sadly, being stranded in one other galaxy doesn’t get you out of labor. Your shipboard AI supervisor, COSMO, nonetheless has jobs that want doing.
One other Day on the Workplace
Gravhounds is constructed round a easy loop: take a job, drop onto a hostile planet, construct an operation, get what you got here for, and attempt to go away with everybody nonetheless alive. That sounds organized; it normally isn’t.
Jobs may contain recovering alien know-how, extracting helpful sources, or establishing infrastructure someplace the native wildlife would strongly desire you didn’t. Because the operation expands, so do your issues. The longer you keep and the more durable you push, the extra harmful the planet turns into. Quickly you’re repairing defenses, hauling sources, rescuing any individual who wandered off alone, and deciding whether or not you may have time to seize another factor earlier than leaving. Common sense tends to deteriorate because the shift progresses.
Put Gravity to Work
On the heart of Gravhounds is the Grav Beam, the commercial instrument each Gravhound makes use of to seize sources, haul gear, place Construct Kits, and manipulate objects world wide. It additionally seems to be extraordinarily helpful for violence.
You’ll be able to throw objects, transfer heavy sources between teammates, rip smaller creatures out of the struggle, or flip no matter occurs to be close by into an improvised projectile. Possibly your teammate wants a well being pickup. Throw it to them. Possibly an enemy is attacking your base. Choose it up and throw it some place else.
The Plan Lasts About 30 Seconds
We’ve at all times beloved co-op video games the place gamers genuinely want each other. Gravhounds is about fixing issues collectively, not 4 folks merely taking pictures on the identical goal. Generally which means coordinating a protection completely. Different instances, any individual’s enthusiasm for exploration turns into an emergency rescue operation.
For us, one of the best co-op moments are when issues unexpectedly go off the rails, and but by some means you continue to pull it off collectively. Gravhounds is intentionally systemic, giving gamers instruments and leaving room to resolve mix them. We’ve already watched gamers discover options we didn’t anticipate. We anticipate that drawback to get significantly worse as soon as all of you begin taking part in.
Construct to Survive
Constructing isn’t a separate part in Gravhounds. It’s a part of the struggle. Your pipeline is the spine of each operation, carrying energy throughout the planet and offering locations to deploy buildings and defenses. Push farther and you’ll attain extra helpful sources and distant goals, however you’re additionally creating extra infrastructure to guard.
We needed constructing to really feel quick and bodily. It enhances the motion fairly than pulling you out of it. Seize the gear, get it into place, energy it up, and get again to work. Ideally earlier than one thing eats you.
Each Shift Will get Weirder
As you struggle, construct, collect sources, and contribute to the job, you’ll earn Reward Pods containing randomized weapons and upgrades. You may lean into mobility, uncooked firepower, protection, or construct round an uncommon mixture of upgrades. As these results stack, your construct turns into more and more highly effective. In the meantime, the opposition is escalating too. By the tip of a superb shift, each side are usually significantly extra harmful than once they began.
Transfer Quick, Die Final
Each Gravhound wears an industrial propulsion rig that allows you to increase in a number of instructions, leap, hover, and shortly reposition across the battlefield. Get onto the pipeline and the rig supercharges, letting you grind alongside it at excessive velocity with limitless increase. This turns into notably helpful when your base is collapsing in three completely different locations, or when any individual has made a collection of poor choices and now requires help. Once more.
Coming to Sport Preview and Sport Move
Gravhounds launches into Sport Preview on Xbox Sequence X|S and Xbox on PC on November 2, 2026, and shall be obtainable day one with Xbox Sport Move. Sport Preview is a pure match for Gravhounds. The sport is pushed by methods, stability, co-op interplay, and participant experimentation, and we wish to preserve creating it alongside the people who find themselves taking part in it.
In the event you’re at gamescom this week, you may as well play Gravhounds on the ID@Xbox sales space in Corridor 7. We hope you’ll come take a shift.
Gravhounds
Octopus Panic, Inc
1–4 PLAYER CO-OP
Intense alone, chaotic with a crew. Mix every Gravhound’s strengths and improvise to beat again the swarm. Go lone wolf to develop the operation or persist with the pack and stand your floor.
BEND GRAVITY TO YOUR WILL
Fetch!
Fling objects throughout the battlefield to your teammates. Flip gravity towards the swarm and ship them flying, one after the other.
Disclaimer: Transporting unstable supplies with the Grav Beam might lead to unexpected lack of Gravhounds.
BUILD TO SURVIVE
Deploy turrets, mills, and fabricators to develop the operation and defend it from the swarm.
Prolong pipelines throughout hostile terrain to energy your base, transfer sources, and preserve your escape route alive.
YOU ARE THE PERFECT WORKER
Select from a crew of bio-engineered canine staff constructed for harmful planetary operations.
Loyal.
Obedient.
Expendable.
NO TWO SHIFTS PLAY THE SAME
Unlock highly effective new talents and upgrades mid-shift. Stack bonuses and reshape your loadout to swimsuit the scenario. The swarm grows deadlier by the second – however so do you.
MOVE FAST, DIE LAST
Increase in any path and reposition below fireplace. Race to your teammates’ assist or make a final sprint for supplies.
Warning: Unauthorized leisure use of pipeline increase is strictly prohibited.
EVERY CHOICE MATTERS
Search out treacherous planets for one of the best supplies – the upper the chance, the larger the rewards.
Unlock new Gravhounds, weapons, and improve paths.
Keep longer, push more durable, and the swarm escalates. Each shift turns into a wager on how a lot your pack can deal with.
