In 2020, the video game industry found itself in a strange limbo. E3 2020 had been canceled, yet the rumor mill refused to take a break. A Reddit user named UtopianThrowaway90 assembled a list of games that were supposedly going to be announced that year: Spider-Man 2 for PlayStation 5, a new Assassin's Creed from Ubisoft, Resident Evil 8, a new Batman game, the Harry Potter RPG, Fable 4, Forza Motorsport 8, a Star Wars Rogue Squadron-style title, and even a Marvel fighting game from NetherRealm Studios. At the time, some entries felt like safe bets, while others made the community collectively raise an eyebrow. Now, with 2026 well underway, hindsight turns that list into a fascinating time capsule.
The Rumors That Aged Like Fine Wine 🍷
Some of the 2020 whispers were not just accurate; they became major milestones.
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Resident Evil 8 — Now known as Resident Evil Village — was officially revealed in June 2020 and launched in May 2021. The tall lady, Lady Dimitrescu, became a cultural phenomenon. The rumor was real, and it arrived quickly.
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Harry Potter RPG — The project surfaced as Hogwarts Legacy. Warner Bros. announced it in September 2020, and the game finally launched in February 2023. It became one of the best-selling games of that year, proving the leaked footage had been genuine.
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Forza Motorsport 8 — Microsoft's racing sim returned as simply Forza Motorsport in October 2023. The annual-ish cadence had slowed, but the rumor's core claim held up.
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Star Wars Rogue Squadron-style game — This one likely referred to Star Wars: Squadrons, which was announced in June 2020 and released in October 2020. It delivered exactly the cockpit-focused starfighter combat fans had hoped for.
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New Assassin's Creed — Ubisoft did announce Assassin's Creed Valhalla in 2020. The Viking saga launched in November 2020. Later, the franchise moved through Mirage in 2023 and Shadows in 2025, so the rumor was only the beginning of a long, evolving story.
The Rumors That Took Detours 🛣️
Other entries on the list were technically true, but not in the way fans expected.
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Spider-Man 2 for PS5 — Insomniac Games did announce Marvel's Spider-Man 2, but not in 2020. The reveal came in September 2021, and the game swung onto PlayStation 5 in October 2023. The rumor was early, not wrong.
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New Batman game — WB Games Montreal had been teasing a Batman-related project, but the actual announcement was Gotham Knights in August 2020. It launched in October 2022. The Caped Crusader was part of the broader Bat-family story, yet the solo Batman game many imagined never materialized in that form.
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Fable 4 — Playground Games officially announced Fable in July 2020. After years of silence, gameplay appeared in 2024, and the reboot was positioned for a 2026 release window. The rumor was correct, but the waiting game became legendary.
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NetherRealm Marvel game — This one remains the oddest entry. NetherRealm Studios is owned by Warner Bros., and its fighting games have focused on Mortal Kombat and Injustice. A Marvel project never came to pass. The studio instead continued with Mortal Kombat 1 in 2023. So the rumor fizzled out.
A 2026 Reality Check 🔍
By 2026, the announcement landscape has changed dramatically. E3 is gone for good, having been canceled permanently in December 2023. Summer Game Fest, The Game Awards, Nintendo Directs, and individual publisher showcases now carry the hype. Rumors still spread like wildfire, but they are often debunked within hours by official trailers, developer statements, or datamining.
The 2020 list is a reminder that leaks can be surprisingly accurate, especially when they come from credible insiders or accidentally published assets. At the same time, it shows how easily timing, branding, and platform politics can distort a rumor. A game can be real and still take years to appear. A project can be teased and then transform into something else entirely. And sometimes, as with the NetherRealm Marvel claim, the rumor mill simply spins straw into gold that never exists.
For players in 2026, the lesson is simple: enjoy the speculation, but keep expectations flexible. The industry's hype train rarely runs on schedule. The games that defined the early 2020s — Resident Evil Village, Hogwarts Legacy, Spider-Man 2, Fable, and others — all had their own messy journeys from rumor to release. Some arrived late. Some changed shape. A few never showed up at all. Yet the excitement surrounding them helped shape the conversation for years.
In the end, UtopianThrowaway90's list was not a perfect prophecy, but it was a surprisingly useful map. It captured the hopes, guesses, and collective imagination of a moment when the world was stuck indoors and video games promised escape. Six years later, that list reads less like a leak sheet and more like a historical document — a snapshot of what fans wanted, what studios were secretly building, and what the rumor mill could never fully control.