Serious Sam: Shatterverse is a 5-player co-op roguelite heading to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S sometime in 2026. This brand-new Serious Sam entry was revealed during the Xbox Partner Preview, a 30-minute broadcast that featured other major reveals such as an Xbox Game Pass release date for Hades 2, the announcement of a new S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl expansion, and the debut of a new Hunter: The Reckoning game.
A franchise of fast-paced first-person shooters, Serious Sam made its debut in March 2001. Most Serious Sam entries follow the same general plot, with players assuming the role of Sam “Serious” Stone, a time-traveling soldier tasked with defeating the evil alien overlord Mental. There have been six mainline Serious Sam entries and 10 spinoffs released over the last 25 years, including four numbered entries, a Game Boy Advance port, some mobile titles, and a VR co-op shooter. The most recent Serious Sam releases came in 2022 with the launch of Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem and Serious Sam: Tormental, with the former being a standalone expansion to Serious Sam 4 and the latter being a roguelite twin-stick shooter.
Every Serious Sam Game, Ranked
Double your gun, double your fun! With how many Serious Sam games are now in the series, it’s time to see how they all stack up against each other.
Serious Sam: Shatterverse is a Co-Op Roguelite FPS Coming in 2026
Serious Sam: Shatterverse burst into existence with a brief but frantic announcement trailer. The trailer opens with five alternate universe versions of Sam joining forces to once again take down the villainous Mental and his endless army of aliens. Fans are then treated to around 40 seconds of gameplay footage, teasing the upcoming shooter’s towering boss fights, fluid movement and shooting mechanics, and its new roguelite elements, with players seemingly being able to choose from three distinct upgrades at some point during a run.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
On the subject of runs, Serious Sam: Shatterverse‘s press release states that the game’s levels will feature “procedurally shifted runs across hand-crafted arenas,” and that those arenas will encompass both returning locations from the series’ past and new environments from across alternate dimensions where the Sam of that universe failed to stop Mental’s armies. Those armies will also be made up of both fresh and familiar faces, and players will be given a “frankly irresponsible arsenal of weapons” to deal with them. That arsenal is also pulling from Serious Sam‘s history while adding some all-new weapons to the pool.
Serious Sam: Shatterverse Isn’t Being Developed by the Series’ Creators
While the Croatia-based developer Croteam created Serious Sam and has led the charge in developing all of the franchise’s mainline installments, it’s rarely worked on the series’ many spinoffs. Since 2011, all Serious Sam games have been published by Devolver digital, but a range of different developers have been given the reins to the FPS franchise since then. That’s the case once more, as Serious Sam: Shatterverse is being published by Devolver Digital, and developed by Behaviour Interactive.
A studio best known for its ongoing work on the asymmetrical horror game Dead by Daylight, Behaviour Interactive has an extensive history in the video game landscape, with the studio’s work over the last few decades encompassing a wide range of genres and gameplay styles. Behaviour’s most recent first-person shooter was 2023’s Meet Your Maker, a game that revolved around raiding user-created outposts.
Behaviour Interactive Producer Nic Duchesne had this to say about developing Serious Sam: Shatterverse:
“Our main goal was to respect Serious Sam’s rich legacy while presenting it in a fresh, contemporary way unlike anything seen before in the series.”
