Action RPG Valor Mortis has conceded defeat when it comes to the September gaming arms race and announced a short delay.
Last week, it became abundantly clear that September is going to be one of the most crowded months for video game releases in history. It seems to be the rough cut-off for most game launches before GTA 6 hits the business like an atomic bomb. There are a couple of exceptions, like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4, which is being released in October. However, it appears most other games don’t want to be too close to the blast radius of GTA 6. Of course, the overwhelming amount of September releases means that the situation arguably isn’t much better for some games.
As a result, Valor Mortis (a game that announced its release date on Sunday), has decided to push into October to have a better chance. The game will now arrive on October 13th.
“We want to give Valor Mortis (and your wallet) some room to breathe,” said developer One More Level in a statement.
When speaking with Stephen Totilo from Game File, the team behind the game noted that they had previously chosen September 24th as a release date because it looked very clear – and then Control Resonant and Silent Hill: Townfall chose to release on the same day. To make matters worse, Onimusha: Way of the Sword’s release date falls the day after, on September 25th.
“As soon as Control announced September 24th, we knew we were moving the date,” said Blake Rochkind, head of publisher at Lyrical Games. “Candidly, I think Control looks like it might be a Game of the Year contender.”
Rochkind immediately sent a message to the development team about changing the date and tried to strategically pick a new one that wouldn’t be slammed by competition, but held the announcement until after the Nintendo Direct to make sure there weren’t any massive games arriving on their new date.
From the creators of Ghostrunner, Valor Mortis is a first-person soulslike where you’ll rise from death as a former soldier of Napoleon’s army, only to die over and over again battling shambling corpses and wild monsters. You can get a rundown on Valor Mortis in our recent preview.
Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN’s news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.
