Last night’s State of Play might have been bookended by Marvel’s Wolverine and God of War Laufey, but it was clearly Grand Theft Auto 6 that had the most outsized presence through the showcase. No, there wasn’t a new GTA 6 trailer, but you could see the games industry as a whole cowering away from the blazing heat of this year’s most anticipated game. With GTA 6 still set for a 19th November release, almost every release date announcement during the State of Play saw publishers settle on the same two week window at the end of September and early October to release their games in.
Let’s run through all of the announcements from last night:
- Marvel’s Wolverine – 15th September
- Marvel Tokon Fighting Souls – 6th August
- Rayman Legends Retold – 1st October
- Bancho the Chef – TBA
- Kemuri – 2027
- Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis – 12th February 2027
- The Lost Wild – 2027
- Phantom Blade Zero – 29th October
- Dune: Awakening Console – 22nd September
- Dynasty Warriors 3 Complete Edition – 1st October
- No Rest for the Wicked – TBA October
- RuneScape: Dragonwilds – TBC 2026
- Onimusha: Way of the Sword – 25th September
- Silent Hill: Townfall – 24th September
- Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve – 2nd October
- Stuntman: Hollywood – “Coming soon”
- ILL – TBA
- Control Resonant – 24th September
- Until Dawn 2 – 2027
- God of War Laufey – TBA
Of those 20 games, then, 12 are set to arrive this year. And of those with dates, all bar one are arriving in September or October, and 6 of those are confirmed to release within a span of 24th September through 2nd October.
Admittedly it’s not quite as dramatic as all that – Dynasty Warriors 3 Complete Edition isn’t really competing with Dune: Awakening or Ace Combat 8 for the same audience – but there is still some major crossover for other games. Control Resonant, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and Marvel’s Wolverine all put an emphasis on narrative led melee action, and then there’s the horror genre staple of Silent Hill: Townfall, with Konami trying to lock down this late September or early October window for their franchise.
Is Control walking into trouble with its September launch date?
It was already bordering on a drinking game to see each trailer drop with a practically identical release date, and it could get even sillier as Summer Game Fest kicks into gear later this week. Sony had one hour of game announcements, Geoff Keighley has two, and then there’s the Xbox showcase with their own array of first and third party announcements.
it essentially seems that nobody willing to get within even a month of GTA 6’s release date, and we’ve already seen two titles choose discretion over valour for this year as a whole – Fable and Tomb Raider have both bounced back to February 2027, the former specifically noting the difficult launch window awaiting us this year. Microsoft has both Halo: Campaign Evolved and Gears of War: E-Day to release this year, and they’ve got their own internal juggling act with Modern Warfare 4 set to arrive in late October.
The question is, what will everyone do now that they’ve seen how frantic September will be in addition to wanting to avoid November? Are publishers hurriedly re-exporting release date announcement trailers ahead of this weekend for the likes of Metro 2039 (this winter), Stranger Than Heaven (this winter), Clive Barker’s Hellraiser (likely having aspired to this Halloween) and more?
With a more typical spread, more games can enjoy their launch window and pick up more of their sales at full price. GTA 6 isn’t just set to hoover up a huge amount of video game spending for itself, it’s condensing the rest of the schedule and will force gamers to pick and choose between $80 game purchases. The sincere hope is that this still somehow works out for these major games.
