back in late 2020, when the looming behemoth of Cyberpunk 2077 caused a bunch of other game developers to change their release dates to avoid being steamrollered? It's happening again, sort of: Summerfall Studios, the developer of David Gaider's musical RPG Baldur's Gate 3.
"We want everyone to have ample space to check out Stray Gods when it launches," the studio said. "Baldur's Gate 3 is hotly anticipated (by us, too!) and we want to give our fans room to celebrate Stray Gods.
"We also want everyone to be able to play on their preferred device at launch. This is a huge undertaking for any team, let alone an indie shipping its first title. This extra week allows us to have performance parity as close as possible, across every platform."
It's a little unusual for a studio to straight-up acknowledge that it's purposefully avoiding a bigger game, but not unprecedented. When Grinding Gear Games paused the release of Everspace 2.
What makes this case different (and particularly funny), though, is that Baldur's Gate 3 quantity and quality.
And never forget, Starfield itself was supposed to be out last year, on second half of 2023. So really, if you're looking to blame anyone for the Stray Gods delay, you can point the finger at Todd Howard.
So Baldur's Gate 3 moves because of Starfield, and Stray Gods moves because of Baldur's Gate 3. Will Stray Gods muscle anyone out of its way? It's certainly something different and I really hope it's good, but with all due respect to Summerfall Studios, I'm going to guess that it's not very likely. Still, it's good news for RPG fans: More time to play a game before another game comes banging on the door is always welcome.
To recap:
Baldur's Gate 3 (PC): August 3
Stray Gods: August 10
Starfield: September 6 (It didn't change, because hey, why would it?)
