This week at gamescom, we finally revealed Gravhounds, the first game from our seven-person independent studio, Octopus Panic – it’s set to launch into Game Preview on XBOX Series X|S and XBOX on PC on November 2, 2026, and will be available day one with XBOX Game Pass.
We’re a small team, but between us we’ve spent years making much bigger games. Across the studio, we’ve worked on franchises like Halo, Battlefield, and Star Wars, along with games like Full Spectrum Warrior, Def Jam: Fight for NY, and The Saboteur. We started Octopus Panic to get small again: to experiment, have fun, and build systems that leave room for players to surprise us.
The dogs came early. We all love dogs, and their personalities and breed characteristics gave us a lot to work with. From there, it wasn’t hard to imagine a future corporation seeing those same qualities and deciding dogs would make the perfect workforce.
So, in Gravhounds, you’re a bio-engineered dog built for dangerous industrial work, stranded with your crew on the far side of the galaxy. Getting home means salvaging alien worlds, building questionable infrastructure, and surviving things considerably higher on the food chain than you are.
Unfortunately, being stranded in another galaxy does not get you out of work. Your shipboard AI supervisor, COSMO, still has jobs that need doing.
Another Day at the Office
Gravhounds is built around a simple loop: take a job, drop onto a hostile planet, build an operation, get what you came for, and try to leave with everyone still alive. That sounds organized; it usually isn’t.
Jobs might involve recovering alien technology, extracting valuable resources, or establishing infrastructure somewhere the local wildlife would strongly prefer you didn’t. As the operation expands, so do your problems. The longer you stay and the harder you push, the more dangerous the planet becomes. Soon you’re repairing defenses, hauling resources, rescuing somebody who wandered off alone, and deciding whether you have time to grab one more thing before leaving. Good judgment tends to deteriorate as the shift progresses.
Put Gravity to Work
At the center of Gravhounds is the Grav Beam, the industrial tool every Gravhound uses to grab resources, haul equipment, place Build Kits, and manipulate objects around the world. It also turns out to be extremely useful for violence.
You can throw objects, move heavy resources between teammates, rip smaller creatures out of the fight, or turn whatever happens to be nearby into an improvised projectile. Maybe your teammate needs a health pickup. Throw it to them. Maybe an enemy is attacking your base. Pick it up and throw it somewhere else.
The Plan Lasts About 30 Seconds
We’ve always loved co-op games where players genuinely need one another. Gravhounds is about solving problems together, not four people simply shooting at the same target. Sometimes that means coordinating a defense perfectly. Other times, somebody’s enthusiasm for exploration turns into an emergency rescue operation.
For us, the best co-op moments are when things unexpectedly go off the rails, and yet somehow you still pull it off together. Gravhounds is deliberately systemic, giving players tools and leaving room to decide how to combine them. We’ve already watched players find solutions we didn’t anticipate. We expect that problem to get considerably worse once all of you start playing.
Build to Survive
Building isn’t a separate phase in Gravhounds. It’s part of the fight. Your pipeline is the backbone of every operation, carrying power across the planet and providing places to deploy structures and defenses. Push farther and you can reach more valuable resources and distant objectives, but you’re also creating more infrastructure to protect.
We wanted building to feel fast and physical. It complements the action rather than pulling you out of it. Grab the equipment, get it into place, power it up, and get back to work. Preferably before something eats you.
Every Shift Gets Weirder
As you fight, build, gather resources, and contribute to the job, you’ll earn Reward Pods containing randomized weapons and upgrades. You might lean into mobility, raw firepower, defense, or build around an unusual combination of upgrades. As those effects stack, your build becomes increasingly powerful. Meanwhile, the opposition is escalating too. By the end of a good shift, both sides tend to be considerably more dangerous than when they started.
Move Fast, Die Last
Every Gravhound wears an industrial propulsion rig that lets you boost in multiple directions, jump, hover, and quickly reposition around the battlefield. Get onto the pipeline and the rig supercharges, letting you grind along it at high speed with unlimited boost. This becomes particularly useful when your base is collapsing in three different places, or when somebody has made a series of poor decisions and now requires assistance. Again.
Coming to Game Preview and Game Pass
Gravhounds launches into Game Preview on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC on November 2, 2026, and will be available day one with Xbox Game Pass. Game Preview is a natural fit for Gravhounds. The game is driven by systems, balance, co-op interaction, and player experimentation, and we want to keep developing it alongside the people who are playing it.
If you’re at gamescom this week, you can also play Gravhounds at the ID@Xbox booth in Hall 7. We hope you’ll come take a shift.
Gravhounds
Octopus Panic, Inc
Intense alone, chaotic with a crew. Combine each Gravhound’s strengths and improvise to beat back the swarm. Go lone wolf to expand the operation or stick with the pack and stand your ground.
BEND GRAVITY TO YOUR WILL
Fetch!
Fling objects across the battlefield to your teammates. Turn gravity against the swarm and send them flying, one by one.
Disclaimer: Transporting volatile materials with the Grav Beam may result in unforeseen loss of Gravhounds.
BUILD TO SURVIVE
Deploy turrets, generators, and fabricators to expand the operation and defend it from the swarm.
Extend pipelines across hostile terrain to power your base, move resources, and keep your escape route alive.
YOU ARE THE PERFECT WORKER
Choose from a crew of bio-engineered canine workers built for dangerous planetary operations.
Loyal.
Obedient.
Expendable.
NO TWO SHIFTS PLAY THE SAME
Unlock powerful new abilities and upgrades mid-shift. Stack bonuses and reshape your loadout to suit the situation. The swarm grows deadlier by the second – but so do you.
MOVE FAST, DIE LAST
Boost in any direction and reposition under fire. Race to your teammates’ aid or make a last dash for materials.
Warning: Unauthorized recreational use of pipeline boost is strictly prohibited.
EVERY CHOICE MATTERS
Seek out treacherous planets for the best materials – the higher the risk, the greater the rewards.
Unlock new Gravhounds, weapons, and upgrade paths.
Stay longer, push harder, and the swarm escalates. Every shift becomes a bet on how much your pack can handle.
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