Last night’s State of Play could 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 across the showcase. No, there wasn’t a new GTA 6 trailer, but you could see the gaming industry as a whole moving away from the scorching heat of this year’s most anticipated game. While GTA 6 is still scheduled for a November 19 release, almost every release date announcement during State of Play has seen publishers settle on the same two-week window in late September and early October to release their games.
Let’s review all of last night’s announcements:
Of these 20 games, 12 should therefore arrive this year. And of those that have dates, all but one are arriving in September or October, and 6 of them are confirmed to be released between September 24 and October 2.
Of course, this is not the case enough as dramatic as all that – Dynasty Warriors 3 Complete Edition doesn’t really compete with Dune: Awakening or Ace Combat 8 for the same audience – but there are still major crossovers with other games. Control Resonant, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, and Marvel’s Wolverine all emphasize narrative melee action, and then there’s the horror genre staple of Silent Hill: Townfall, with Konami trying to lock in that late September or early October window for their franchise.
Is Control in trouble with its September launch date?
It was already bordering on a drinking game to see every trailer released with a virtually identical release date, and it could get even sillier as Summer Game Fest kicks off later this week. Sony had an hour of game announcements, Geoff Keighley had two, and then there’s the Xbox Showcase with its own lineup of first and third party announcements.
it essentially seems like no one is willing to come even close to a month before GTA 6’s release date, and we’ve already seen two titles choose discretion over courage for the whole of this year – Fable and Tomb Raider have both bounced to February 2027, with the former specifically noting the difficult launch window ahead of us this year. Microsoft has both Halo: Campaign Evolved and Gears of War: E-Day coming out this year, and they have their own internal juggling act with Modern Warfare 4 due to arrive in late October.
The question is: What will everyone do now that they’ve seen how frenetic September will be, besides wanting to avoid November? Are publishers hastily re-exporting release date trailers before this weekend for Metro 2039 (this winter), Stranger Than Heaven (this winter), Clive Barker’s Hellraiser (probably yearning for this Halloween) and more?
With a more typical spread, more games can take advantage of their launch window and achieve more of their sales at full price. GTA 6 is not only set to absorb a huge amount of video game spending for itself, it condenses the rest of the schedule and will force players to choose between $80 game purchases. The sincere hope is that this still works somehow for these major games.
