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Octopath Traveler 0: Trailers, Release Date, And Everything We Know About Square-Enix’s New JRPG

by admin September 20, 2025

There’s been a resurgence of interest in turn-based RPGs in recent times–and, it seems, not enough new big-name titles in the space to appease eager fans. Thankfully for players who’re craving some of the finest JRPG combat out there, Square-Enix has a brand new installment in its popular Octopath Traveler series set for release this December on consoles and PC. Fear not, eager adventurers–we’ve got all the information we know about OT0 right here, including release specifics, trailers, and gameplay details so you’ll be ready for your adventure.

When Will Octopath Traveler 0 be released?

Thankfully, you won’t have to wait too long for a hearty dose of turn-based JRPG goodness. As was announced during the Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, Octopath Traveler 0 will release on December 4, 2025–giving you plenty of time during the holiday break to dig deep into what’s likely to be a lengthy adventure.

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Now Playing: OCTOPATH TRAVELER 0 – Official Announcement Trailer

Preorder Octopath Traveler 0

Octopath Traveler 0 will be available digitally in both standard and digital deluxe editions. The standard edition will be $49.99, and is available both physically and digitally. You can purchase the physical editions for Nintendo Switch, Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series on Amazon.

The digital deluxe edition, which includes a digital art book, three starting Action Skills (Triple Strike Mastery, SP Saver Master and Extra JP Mastery), alongside extra expendable combat items and special decorations for your town, is available exclusively through download storefronts and retails for $59.99.

The physical Collector’s Edition, which includes all of the Digital Deluxe extras alongside a bevy of physical goodies pictured below in a big collector box, is available exclusively on the Square Enix Online Store for $229.99.

All Octopath Traveler 0 pre-orders include the “Travel Provisions” item set, which contains five Healing Grape (M), five Inspiriting Plum (M), two Revitalizing Jam, and the Icewind Mastery Action Skill.

Check out the Octopath Traveler 0 trailer

With OT0’s Nintendo Direct reveal came a trailer and snippets of gameplay. As we can see, the game still boasts its trademark HD-2D visuals and strategic turn-based combat. There are intriguing new additions shown briefly, as well, including a glimpse at the game’s town-rebuilding mechanic and character creation.

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Octopath Traveler 0 platforms

Octopath Traveler 0 will be available on the majority of current platforms: Xbox Series, PlayStation 4 and 5, Switch and Switch 2, and PC.

Octopath Traveler 0 story, setting, and characters

Octopath Traveler 0 is loosely based on the mobile game Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent. It takes place on Orsterra, the same setting as CotC and the original Octopath Traveler. During the Day of Reverence ceremony in Wishvale, the city is attacked and razed to the ground, leaving your created character with the task of both rebuilding and seeking revenge on those responsible.

The reveal trailer introduces a few story characters: Stia, an Architect who is the player character’s childhood friend; Phenn, a watchful Huntsman; and Laurana, a Cleric. Square Enix claims that there will be over 30 playable characters in total, and they will all have some unique abilities. Further character reveals include Celsus the thief, Alexia the Scholar, Ludo the Merchant, Viator the Warrior, and Macy the Apothecary. Antagonists that have been revealed so far include Herminia, the Covetous Witch; Tytos, the Hero; and Auguste, the Playwright.

Octopath Traveler 0 gameplay

Octopath Traveler 0 inherits much of the freeform exploration gameplay of previous titles. There’s no set, linear route you’ll be required to take from beginning to end, though certain areas may be easier than others depending on your party composition, skills, and equipment. You’ll be able to interact with NPCs through various, character-specific Path Actions, such as Entreat (asking NPCs to give you items) and Inquire (pressing NPCs to give you more information). One of the new Path Actions we know is in the game is Invite, which allows you to attempt to bring an NPC to live in your town.

Enemy encounters occur randomly in certain areas, though there are some encounters that are visible on the map–including challenging elite-tier enemies that require some extra power and strategy to take down.

Octopath Traveler 0 combat

Like the original Octopath Traveler and its sequel, Octopath Traveler 0 features turn-based combat in which you aim to strategically target enemy weaknesses to break down their “shields.” When their shields hit 0, they enter a weakened stun state, allowing you a prime opportunity for a big attack. You can also choose to use a Boost during a character’s turn to enhance their skills’ effectiveness. What makes OT0’s combat different is that up to eight characters can join in, up from four in OT and OT2. The front-row characters are active in combat, while the back-row team provides various boosts. You can switch characters between rows in battle, as well, opening up new strategies. For more details on combat, read our Octopath Traveler 0 Gamescom preview.

Octopath Traveler 0’s new features

Some big new mechanics have been introduced in Octopath Traveler 0. One such new element is town-building, which you’ll use to reconstruct Wishdale. In this mode, you’ll use materials to place and build structures. As you play, you can recruit characters who will aid in rebuilding in various ways, such as staffing facilities. You can also upgrade these facilities through quests. For more details on town-building, check out our Octopath Traveler 0 preview from Gamescom.

The other big feature is character creation and customization, which we detail below.

How character creation works in Octopath Traveler 0

Since all of its characters are drawn in 2D pixel art, character creation in Octopath Traveler 0 is a bit different from many of the 3D titles that offer the feature. You’ll be able to select a base gender, small facial details (eye appearance and color), hairstyle and hair color, skin tone, victory/action poses, voice, and name. Going from the trailer, you’ll also be able to choose a starting Learned Skill (likely similar to Hikari’s mechanic in Octopath Traveler II), starting job, a favorite food (which gives specific stat boosts), and starting gear.

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September 20, 2025 0 comments

A soldier in an icy landscape facing off against two well-armed skeleton enemies while a dragon watches in the background

Product Reviews

This metroidvania based on an old Atari 2600 classic had the audacity to release on the same day as Silksong, but it’s a nice break from Hornet’s hell

by admin September 18, 2025

Every week at least a couple of metroidvanias release on Steam, and most remain obscure. Adventure of Samsara, which released on September 4, was more fated to obscurity than most, despite being published by an ascendant Atari. Because September 4 was also the day Silksong released. Few were going to make time for a handsome but orthodox pixel art metroidvania when the joys and indignities of Pharloom beckon.

Except me: I needed a break from Silksong earlier this week, mostly because I was getting my ass kicked, but also because a small detail on the Adventure of Samsara Steam page piqued my interest. This is actually a spiritual sequel of sorts to the 1980 game Adventure, which was probably the most cryptic and sprawling Atari 2600 cart on the market.

Adventure gave me nightmares as a child. Whereas most Atari 2600 games were cheerfully straightforward one-screen arcade games or scrolling shooters, Adventure had designs on being a full-blown, well, adventure, and it displayed some proto-metroidvania qualities to that end.

You explore a same-ish labyrinth as a dot, collecting color-coded keys to unlock color-coded doors, avoiding bats and dragons, and using tools—such as a magnet and a bridge—to solve problems. Its austere blocky graphics are to ASCII what Duplo is to Lego, but there’s a quiet inscrutability to it that freaked me out as a kid (as did Secret Quest, another fairly ambitious Atari 2600 adventure game).

Here’s what the original Adventure looked like (via Retro Games Fan):

Atari 2600: Adventure – YouTube

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After spending around seven hours in Adventure of Samsara, I can confirm that it doesn’t share a hell of a lot in common with its 1980 source material. The closest call-back I can find, the dragons, are coiled in the same way as the old game and similarly color-coded. If you liked Adventure (I highly doubt you ever loved it), then you’re probably not going to feel relief or the frisson of familiarity with this 2025 game. It definitely feels like a case of having a languishing IP fitted to a new game, almost as an afterthought. (Beyond the Ice Palace 2 comes to mind.)

That’s fine (that’s business) but how does Adventure of Samsara stack up as a 2025 exploration platformer? Kinda well, but not brilliantly. As a “Solar Champion” it’s my job to reactivate “a mysterious interdimensional fortress”, which means exploring a big interconnected underground labyrinth full of monsters, traps and those dragons. Along the way I find the usual array of exploration-gratifying power-ups while unlocking shortcuts, save points and fast travel stations.

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(Image credit: Atari)(Image credit: Atari)(Image credit: Atari)(Image credit: Atari)(Image credit: Atari)

My Solar Champion is a floaty lil’ fellow (“lil” because Adventure of Samsara feels more zoomed out than most modern platformers) and his actions can’t be canceled. These qualities do not bode well at first, but I did get used to the stiffness of the controls, probably because Samsara isn’t otherwise a very demanding game. My Solar Champion eventually has three weapons—a sword, a bow and a hammer—and the latter two double as traversal and exploration tools, alongside the usual hard-won character upgrades. Yes, there is a double jump.

I was surprised to find that this game kept me up just as late as Silksong has been this past week.

What I like about Adventure of Samsara is its atmosphere. Yes, it blends fantasy and sci-fi in a pretty familiar way, but the retro-futuristic synth soundtrack is evocatively subtle. It clearly has designs on channeling the 1980s, but it does so in a quiet, nearly plaintive way that’s quite at odds with the nowadays suffocating banality of synthwave.

The other thing I liked about Samsara, especially compared to the 30-odd hours I’ve spent in Silksong, is how exploration-forward it is. There are bosses, but they’re not especially hard, and once you’ve beaten them you can look forward to big chunks of just nosing around. At first this exploration is done tentatively, as the combat is pretty rote and repetitive: attack, dash back, attack, dash back. But once my Solar Champion has some crisper moves and more effective weapons, the exploration becomes freewheeling and engaging. I was surprised to find that this game kept me up just as late as Silksong has been this past week.

(Image credit: Atari)

I also came to appreciate the pixel art, which was a bit of an obstacle for me at first. The world is coherent and carefully illustrated, but the enemy sprites kinda look like something you’d see in uh, Siralim. They’re barely animated—they just blob around. But this culminates in Samara having an interesting primitive quality that oddly reminded me of Barbuta from UFO 50.

Will Silksong signal the end of the charming, humble indie metroidvania? Are these games now doomed to be big budget affairs designed to sap mindshare for weeks going and months? What I love about the genre is that the vast majority of its purveyors—the ones making games you find on Steam with less than 50 reviews—feel like the work of joyful hobbyists, a tradition that runs from Cave Story through to stuff like Astalon.

Adventure of Samsara definitely belongs to that tradition, despite having a 40-odd year old IP attached to it. Yes, it has rough edges, but the next time you want to slide into a mysterious, enveloping metroidvania that doesn’t want you to suffer mercilessly, I’d recommend giving it a look. Maybe also check out Zexion.

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September 18, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Escape From Tarkov’s Steam release comes with a snag for people who already own it

by admin September 18, 2025

It’s that time of the year folks. The weather’s getting colder, the days are getting shorter, and Escape From Tarkov is getting Tweeted and Skeeted about again because of a controversial decision. This time, it’s because the game is coming to Steam, which in and of itself is a perfectly fine, perhaps even smart thing to do. The thing that’s being called into question however, is the answer to a question on the Steam release’s FAQ page about whether or not you’ll have to buy it again.

“To play Escape from Tarkov through Steam, you must purchase any edition of the game on Steam,” the FAQ page explains. “You can then link your existing Battlestate Games account with an active copy of the game to your Steam profile. If the editions differ, it will automatically use the higher edition of the two when launching the game through Steam.”

It then provides an example, noting that if you buy the standard edition on Steam, but your Battlestate Games account has the Unheard Edition, that’s the one you’ll be able to play on Steam. That’s… something? I just can’t see any particular reason you’d want to buy the game again aside from Steam Deck functionality, except the FAQ also notes that “Battlestate Games [have] no plans to support a version of the game for Steam Deck,” so you can throw that reason out of the window. There will be Steam achievements if that’s something you care about?

All of your character progress will carry over to the Steam version of the game as well, once you’ve linked your Battlestate Games account, and you’ll still be playing on the same servers as people who bought the game on its official website.

I have no idea how easy it would be to guarantee every single person who owns the game a copy on Steam as well, but it still feels like an odd choice in general. In any case, after being in early access for close to a decade, the full version of the game launches in a couple months’ time on November 15th.

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September 18, 2025 0 comments

Kyle Crane ripping a zombie's head in half in Dying Light: The Beast.

Product Reviews

Dying Light: The Beast launch times and release date

by admin September 18, 2025

Dying Light: The Beast is a game about what it’s like to try to parkour your way through an undead apocalypse after you’ve spent years getting injected with zombie juice. Based on the reactions and vengeful affect of returning Dying Light 1 protagonist Kyle Crane, it seems the juice was bad. And yet it helps you kill zombies, so it might be good? Such are the fascinating moral complexities offered by zombie fiction.

Perhaps the true beast… is humanity!? Or it’s the guy with experimental zombie super strength who can rip mutants apart with his bare hands. Hard to say.

If you’re desperate to learn when you’ll be able to go Beast mode in the latest Dying Light, don’t fret: You won’t have to endure years of zombie DNA experimentation. We’ve got the launch times for Dying Light: The Beast collected below.

When does Dying Light: The Beast unlock?

Big news! Since more than 1 million players have already secured their copy of Dying Light: The Beast ahead of launch, we’re moving the release forward to SEPTEMBER 18! Check out the global launch times for the game to play it as soon as it drops.Pre-order now 👉… pic.twitter.com/PcTnkwB80r September 12, 2025

Dying Light: The Beast launches at 9 am PDT on September 18, meaning Californians get to enjoy a full launch day of lighthearted zombie pulping. Except it probably won’t be that lighthearted. Kyle Crane’s not having a good time.

Here’s the full rundown of Dying Light: The Beast unlock times in timezones around the world:

Los Angeles: 9 am PDT on Thursday, September 18
New York: 12 pm EDT on Thursday, September 18
London: 5 pm BST on Thursday, September 18
Berlin: 6 pm CEST on Thursday, September 18
Sydney: 2 am AEST on Friday, September 19
Wellington: 4 am NZST on Friday, September 19

Does Dying Light: The Beast have preloading?

Yes, but it arrived at just about the last minute. Preloading for Dying Light: The Beast will be available at 9 pm PDT on Wednesday, September 17—just 12 hours before launch time. An earlier preload might have been more useful, but you’ll at least be able to start your download before work if you won’t be playing until the evening. Better than nothing!

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September 18, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Remember episodic gaming? Former Telltale devs are bringing it back for the release of Dispatch, and there’s a chance it might work this time

by admin September 17, 2025

Episodic games, much like baggy jeans and curtain haircuts, may be about to make a comeback, and once again it’s Telltale staff – former Telltale staff – who are leading the charge.

AdHoc Studios, a team founded by Telltale developers in 2018, when Telltale collapsed, will launch debut game Dispatch – a superhero workplace comedy – episodically in October.

Episodes will be roughly an hour long and launch in quick succession. The plan is for two a week, I was told during a press briefing. The releases will begin Wednesday, 22nd October, and continue through 29th October, 5th November and 12th November until the whole series is done.

The entire Dispatch game or series, depending on how you look at it, will cost $30, or you can splash $40 for a Deluxe Edition with some fancy extras. Note, however, you won’t be able to buy episodes individually; the team clarified this to me in a separate interview after the briefing. That means if you pay-out at launch, you’ll have to wait four weeks for the whole series to arrive. The idea is to make it like watching a TV series.

The Dispatch demo is still available on Steam.Watch on YouTube

I can imagine what you’re thinking: didn’t we try this episodic thing before and didn’t it fail because it didn’t work? Weren’t we waiting ages between episodes which seemed to only ever get further and further away? Well, yes – and the former Telltale staff at AdHoc are the first people to admit this.

“We never really were able to hit it at a cadence that people could expect,” said AdHoc co-founder Pierre Shorette, a former TellTale dev, during the Dispatch press briefing. “It’s probably led to a lot of distrust with episodic formats, because the first episode comes out and then it might be ages before anything else shows up.”

Fellow former Telltaler, and fellow AdHoc co-founder Nick Herman, added: “This time we’re going to do better.” But in what way will episodic gaming be different with Dispatch?

Whack! | Image credit: AdHoc

The big difference with Dispatch is that all of the episodes are already made, so their releases are locked. We’re not in a position where a development team moves from one episode to another after each one is made. “They’re all made,” Nick Herman told me during a follow-up interview. “It’s all good.”

Another fellow Telltaler and AdHoc co-founder, Denis Lenart, added: “Part of the transaction formula in our mind was they’ve all got to be ready and they’ve all got to be good to go. Because that happened to Telltale – that’s one of the problems that happened. People would pay money and then go, ‘I thought you said next week.’ And it was like, ‘Actually, maybe it’s three or four weeks… We’ll let you know in a few weeks.’ And then that’s a horrible situation.”

Dispatch is very much like a Telltale game of old in the way it plays out – the way it gives you choice-and-consequence control over the way scenes unfold. It tells the story of a sort-of superhero called Robert Robertson, played by Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul, whose inherited mecha-suit breaks and leaves him – effectively a normal person – needing to get a different job. And the job he gets is in an office working as a superhero dispatcher, sending misfit superheroes to the rescue.

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It’s funny, it’s handsome, and it’s got some great voice talent in it, including Critical Role’s Laura Bailey and husband Travis Willingham. Critical Role is actually a silent partner on the game. “They’re helping us in a variety of ways that aren’t maybe traditional publisher stuff,” Nick Herman told me, which I assume to mean ‘Critical Role is lending clout and exposure’.

Why would Critical Role do that? Because AdHoc is making Critical Role’s first Critical Role video game. All we know about that game is it’ll be set in Exandria, which is the world all three of the group’s major Dungeons & Dragons campaigns have taken place in. Will it also be episodic? We don’t yet know, but I’d say there’s a good chance it will play like Dispatch or a Telltale game, given AdHoc’s area of expertise. I reckon it might draw inspiration from the Vox Machina animated Critical Role series on Amazon too, but that’s just a hunch.

A Dispatch demo was released on Steam earlier this year and is still available there now. It seems to be going down really well.

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September 17, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Valheim coming to PlayStation in 2026, possibly alongside the long-awaited 1.0 release of the game?

by admin September 16, 2025

The set is nearly complete: Valheim is coming to PlayStation next year. Remember, the procedurally generated, multiplayer viking survival game is already available on PC, Mac, Linux and Xbox Series S/X (and Game Pass).

Iron Gate didn’t announce a specific PlayStation console, by the way, which may mean PlayStation 4 is included, but I’ll check this and let you know. And yes, the PlayStation version of the game will have full cross-play with other versions of Valheim.

Development partner Piktiv, which helped implement cross-play when the Xbox version of the game released, and which also helped bring the game to PC Game Pass, will be handling the PlayStation port.

Astarion actor Neil Newbon features in this new trailer. He was once on British TV soap Hollyoaks, you know. (I actually didn’t know that until very recently.)Watch on YouTube

A specific date in 2026 wasn’t shared, possibly because the PlayStation release will coincide with the long-awaited 1.0 release of the game, which is expected sometime in 2026 as well. Valheim, if you don’t know, has been in Early Access since 2021.

But much has been added to the game in that time. Valheim was a phenomenal success when it launched, commanding half-a-million concurrent players at its peak on Steam, and such success expands plans. Part of the reason Piktiv is handling the PlayStation port is so that Iron Gate can focus on finishing the seventh and final biome update for the game, Deep North.

Emma was our resident Valheim reporter when she was here, and she last properly looked at the game in 2023, and discovered a Valheim stuck in limbo. She also wrote a specially commissioned feature for Supporters of Eurogamer that year, which followed her on a ridiculous but inspired adventure to become a real-estate agent in Valheim. Oh, the lengths she went to.

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September 16, 2025 0 comments

A screenshot featuring the LE SSERAFIM collab in Overwatch 2.

Esports

Overwatch 2 x Persona 5 collab release date, all skins, prices

by admin September 16, 2025

An Overwatch 2 collab with Persona 5 is among the major additions set to be added this season, and here’s everything you need to know about it.

We first caught a glimpse of the Persona 5 collab in the Overwatch 2 Season 18 trailer. Just when fans thought things were wrapping up, a silhouette of Joker appeared on screen, complete with the iconic red and black color palette of The Phantom Thieves.

Since then, the hype for the collab has been keeping players busy guessing who’s going to get which character skin from the franchise. Blizzard has been quite tight-lipped about info, and it’s only now that they have finally unveiled the upcoming skins that’ll be included in this crossover.

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It’ll still be a little while until it all gets added to the shop, but we’ve compiled all the details you need to know about the collab, including its release date and time, all skins, and their prices.

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blizzardThe Persona 5 crossover has our favorite heroes cosplaying as characters from the franchise.

Overwatch 2 x Persona 5 crossover release date

The Overwatch 2 x Persona 5 collab is set to arrive on September 16, 2025. This information has been confirmed by Blizzard, via their post on X.

As for the exact time, it’s safe to expect that it’ll be available the same time as the next shop reset and when the midseason patch goes live, which typically falls at 11 AM PT.

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All Overwatch 2 x Persona 5 collab skins

blizzardA closer look at all the Persona 5 skins in-game.

We know that Joker was eventually going to get a skin in-game since the trailer dropped. But it turns out, there are actually several more characters coming.

Here’s a list of them, along with their Overwatch 2 hero counterpart:

Wuyang as Joker
Mercy as Panther
Lifeweaver as Fox
D.Va as Queen
Genji as Skull

This lineup means Wuyang is set to receive his first-ever collab skin despite just being recently released this season.

As with any other collabs, it’s also likely that there will be a limited-time event in-game accompanying the skins’ release.

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Previous collabs like the Cowboy Bebop and LE SSERAFIM featured a free skin players can unlock through challenges, and only time will tell if it’ll be the same case with Atlus’ well-known franchise.

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Skin & bundle prices

At the time of writing, the prices for the cosmetics have yet to be revealed. However, looking at the pricing of Legendary skins and the ones from previous collabs, it’s estimated that the bundle containing each skin with additional cosmetics will be priced at around 2,800 Coins.

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Additionally, assuming each skin can be bought separately, there’s a chance they might cost around 1,900 Coins.

Though do take all this information with a grain of salt for now, as they’re all based on estimations. We’ll be sure to update this section to provide more details once the skins hit the shop.

While you’re here, check out the best perks to use for every hero, the best Stadium build, as well as how many people play the game.

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September 16, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

Silksong’s surprise release was “a little callous”, says Hell is Us creative director

by admin September 16, 2025

Hell is Us creative director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête called the surprise release of Hollow Knight: Silksong “a little callous”, believing it had an impact on his game’s sales.

Rogue Factor’s adventure game was already locked in for its release ahead of Team Cherry’s announcement, but the two games eventually released on the same day.

“When you know you’re that big, I think a shadow drop is a bit like – wow,” said Jacques-Belletête on Skill Up’s Friends Per Second podcast. “As the ‘GTA 6 of indie’… to shadow drop something like this is a little callous.”

Hell is Us Review: Death Stranding meets… ZELDA?Watch on YouTube

After Team Cherry’s announcement, the Hell is Us development team discussed with publisher Nacon whether to change the date. “It was a real thing,” said Jacques-Belletête.

However, the “real pain in the ass”, Jacques-Belletête explained, is that changing release date means refunding pre-orders. And while that wasn’t a deciding factor, the team believed they could weather the storm.

Still, Jacques-Belletête admitted Silksong’s release did impact the launch of Hell is Us. “I don’t have any specific numbers,”he said, “at least not at this time. But for sure it did.”

Above all, Jacques-Belletête highlighted the difficulties of finding an appropriate release window in the current climate.

“That’s the thing nowadays, honestly – getting a window where you’re pretty much alone is almost impossible,” he said. “15 years ago, the mid-end of the summer was always a dead period. But there’s no such thing anymore. It’s just constant madness.”

Plenty of games did change their release date in the wake of Silksong’s launch, including Demonschool and Baby Steps.

“Hell is Us is an absorbing, nightmarish meditation on the horror of war, but divisive design choices prove tedious,” reads our Hell is Us review.

This is a news-in-brief story. This is part of our vision to bring you all the big news as part of a daily live report.

Love Eurogamer? Make us a Preferred Source on Google and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.

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September 16, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Hell Is Us Dev Is A Little Salty Over Hollow Knight: Silksong’s Shadow Release

by admin September 16, 2025

After years of anticipation, Team Cherry only gave the video game industry and players two weeks notice that Hollow Knight: Silksong was about to arrive on September 4. While a handful of indie games were moved away from that date, Rogue Factor had already staked out the same release date for Hell is Us six months earlier. Now, Hell is Us’ creative director is sharing his belief that Silksong’s shadow drop negatively impacted Hell is Us’ sales, and he doesn’t sound happy about it.

Jonathan Jacques-Belletête acknowledged that Team Cherry had the right to pick any date it wanted to during his appearance on the Friends Per Second podcast (via This Week in Video Games). However, Jacques-Belletête feels that the decision to do so on such short notice was “a little callous.”

“When you know you’re that big, I think a shadow drop is a bit like–‘wow,'” said Jacques-Belletête. “As the ‘GTA 6 of indie’ … to shadow drop something like this is a little callous.”

According to Jacques-Belletête, discussions were held between Rogue Factor and publisher Nacon about delaying Hell is Us. But there were too many complicating factors, including the need to refund any pre-orders that had already been placed.

“We decided to keep the date, and I’m happy that we did,” added Jacques-Belletête. “We’re still much bigger than some of the smaller ones who would have gotten a lot more affected and who decided to change their dates. Changing the date of Hell Is Us would have been a pretty big [endeavor].”

Jacques-Belletête went on to note that he believes Silksong’s release hurt Hell is Us’ sales, but also acknowledged that he doesn’t currently have the sales numbers available to illustrate that point.

As for Silksong, it debuted with a massive concurrent player count on Steam during its first weekend. A common complaint about the game is that it’s too difficult, and mods designed to make Silksong easier were released almost immediately. Team Cherry subsequently released its own patch to lower Silksong’s difficulty.

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September 16, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Valve no longer permits games with “mature themes” to release in early access

by admin September 15, 2025

Valve reportedly no longer permits games with “mature themes” to be released in early access.

As detailed by Dammitbird and reported by GamesMarkt, adult game Heavy Hearts failed Valve’s review last month “because [Valve is] unable to support the Early Access model of development for a game with mature themes.” The developer was invited to resubmit the game for approval when it was “ready to launch without Early Access.”

Though Valve did not expand on why games with mature themes have been quietly removed from the Early Access process — and it remains unclear what, precisely, is meant by “mature themes” — it’s thought this is just the latest in a long line of changes from digital storefronts like Steam and itch.io following pressure by its payment processors and conservative activitists to moderate adult content on their sites.

“Due to current events, I panicked and contacted my publisher to help me get on Steam Early Access,” the developer told GamesMarkt. “The general rule is that your game should be about 65% done before doing EA. Well, we are about 70% done so the time was right anyway. But now, all of a sudden and without a policy announcement, the rules have changed and now I can’t join Steam EA.

“Heavy Hearts is still available on itch, but you’ll never be able to search it, because it is de-indexed.

“It’s hard to promote your game on platforms like X because they deboost any mention of Patreon or other socials. Since Patreon used to be the king of de-listing kinky adult games, I never put much stock in it. Now it’s basically all I have, and I still have the risk of getting deplatformed from it.”

GamesIndustry.biz has reached out to Valve for clarification and will update as/when we receive a response.

Itch.io “deindexed” all adult NSFW content from its browse and search pages back in July after an open letter from conservative campaign group Collective Shout called for a stop to “payment processors profiting from rape, incest and child abuse games on Steam,” targeting the CEOs of PayPal, Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and Japan Credit Bureau (JCB).

For more on the situation, read our feature, what’s going on with Steam and itch.io’s crackdown on adult content.

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September 15, 2025 0 comments