A cascade of release date changes is currently underway as this holiday season’s most-anticipated RPGs seek to avoid running into one another.
The latest domino to fall is Stray Gods, the new RPG developed in part Dragon Age writer David Gaider. Originally slated to release on August 3, it has been pushed back a week to August 10. The move follows Larian Studios’ decision to move the PC release of Baldur’s Gate 3 in order to avoid Starfield.
Stray Gods developer Summerfall Studios was candid about the decision to change the release date, saying it wants to avoid Larian’s juggernaut, which has been gaining momentum on Steam ever since its infamous bear sex reveal (by which we mean you can romance a druid in bear form).
“We want everyone to have ample space to check out Stray Gods when it launches. Baldur’s Gate 3 is hotly anticipated (by us, too!) and we want to give our fans room to celebrate Stray Gods,” the studio wrote in a statement posted to its social media channels.
The Stray Gods delay is part of a knock-on effect that arguably began when Starfield was delayed out of 2022 and into 2023. This seemed to put Todd Howard’s opus in in line to be in direct competition with Tear of the Kingdom before it was eventually pushed into September. This resulted in Larian Studios shifting Baldur’s Gate 3, which in turn impacted Stray Gods.
✨ UPDATE ✨
Stray Gods will now release on August 10th. pic.twitter.com/xTEevmEPLb
— Summerfall Studios – Stray Gods coming Aug 10 🎉 (@summerfallgames) July 13, 2023
In short, it’s a pretty stacked holiday season if you’re an RPG fan. Baldur’s Gate 3, Starfield, and Stray Gods are all garnering positive buzz from fans, and that’s not even including the Super Mario RPG remake on Switch that’s slated for later this year.
Stray Gods is Summerfall Studios’ first project. It’s touted as a “roleplaying musical,” having been inspired in part of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s famous musical episode “Once More, With Feeling.” It’s written by Gaider, who previously worked on Dragon Age and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. It utilizes 2D hand-illustrated visuals and generally looks quite wonderful.
Stray Gods is slated to release on August 3 on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
