Terminator Salvation is a third-person shooter action video game, released on May 19, 2009, to coincide with the release of the film of the same title on the same week. It was developed by The Halcyon Company's gaming subsidiary, Halcyon Games, along with Grin, and published by Equity Games and Evolved Games. It was Grin's last game and was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, mobile, and iOS. It received mostly negative reviews.

Set in 2016 in Los Angeles, the console and PC versions of the game take place between the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation and follow John Connor (Gideon Emery), and his team, consisting of Angie Salter (Rose McGowan), Barnes (Common) and Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood). Christian Bale refused to lend his voice and likeness to the game. Rose McGowan voiced the game-exclusive character Angie Salter, who is an ex-high school teacher. Common and Moon Bloodgood voiced their characters from the film (Barnes and Blair, respectively). An animated web series, Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series, takes place before the game, and was released by Machinima in May 2009.

Terminator Salvation is a third-person shooter where the player needs to "constantly move, flank, cover and utilize their squad to progress." The player must battle Skynet enemies from the film of the same name as well as new enemies specifically designed for the game.

The game features a campaign that can be played alone or cooperatively with one other local player via split-screen. The co-op version of the game enables players to play as both John Connor and his teammate Blair Williams.

The game employs a cover and movement system not unlike those featured in Gears of War and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, wherein the player can quickly choose to dodge between different forms of cover, coming out only to fire shots at enemies. Staying in cover is advantageous, as the player only regenerates health when they have not received damage for a certain amount of time (as in the Halo and Call of Duty games). Although players initially are only equipped with an M4 carbine, other weapons such as the RPG-7 and M79 grenade launcher, Remington 870 shotgun, and M249 SAW as well as various types of grenades (Flash and fragmentation) are acquired throughout the game. Enemy A.I. is relatively strong, both keeping track of the player's location realistically (that is, not omniscient but using sight and sound to locate the player) as well as actively pursuing and flanking them when cover is sought by the player.

Years after Judgment Day, John Connor reflects on the old days of preparing for the future battle. Returning to an evac point with Blair Williams and other soldiers, they battle their way through machines to discover that there are no helicopters waiting for them. Escaping in trucks instead, the group is attacked by a Hunter-Killer aircraft. After John Connor manages to destroy the H-K, a T-600 appears and kills several members of his team.

The team travels underground, then above again, battling machines. The surviving trio manages to reach the evacuation point, meeting soldiers. Aerostat drones attack, and John, Blair and others go outside to take care of them. A Resistance team led by soldier David Weston (Sean Cory Cooper) asks for help, but his transmission is lost. The team then tries to make a landing place for a helicopter. The chopper lands and rescues the team, but John and Blair stay behind to rescue David's team.

A rescue team, Epsilon, has a helicopter going down, so the duo goes to its crash-site to check for survivors. They rescue four soldiers, Angie (Rose McGowan), an unknown, Deckard (Joe Camareno) and Dobkin (Nolan North). They fight a legion of machines and then, afterwards, decide to head for an old Resistance outpost. Deckard and the unknown are killed by a T-600, and the team is forced to retreat. They manage to destroy two T-600s. They have no choice but to retreat, but with no way out, the team is forced to destroy the T-600s, though Dobkin is mortally wounded in the fight.