2026's Coolest Soulslike Just Got Delayed, & GTA 6 Is Probably To Blame - MCE Notices | California State Portal

2026 is shaping up to be a busy year for video game releases, despite the looming threat of Grand Theft Auto 6 scaring plenty of other games out of the holiday season. While February 2027 is looking like a popular alternative to going head-to-head with 2026, recent Summer Game Fest reveals suggest that September 2026 might be the busiest month of all.

September’s lineup includes games like Marvel’s Wolverine, Control Resonant, Silent Hill: Townfall, The Blood of Dawnwalker, and Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave. In response to this aggressive competition, an exciting soulslike is choosing to gain a little more breathing room by delaying its launch.

First-person soulslike Valor Mortis announced its delay on X, sharing that a release date of October 13 will be replacing the original date of September 24. The official explanation suggests that the “stacked” September slate is the primary reason behind the change, arguing that launching on October 13 will “give Valor Mortis (and your wallet) some room to breathe.”

That being said, developer One More Level doesn’t plan to spend the extra weeks sitting around. Valor Mortis recently released a Steam demo to coincide with Summer Game Fest, and the post acknowledges that it’s led to “loads of feedback.” The October 13 date will provide the team with “even more time to improve the game,” even if it’s not a particularly long delay.

While One More Level doesn’t cite GTA 6 as a direct cause of Valor Mortis‘s release date troubles, the avalanche of games launching in September certainly seems like a consequence of the GTA 6 release. This might be the first game to move its launch closer to the GTA 6 release as a result, though, setting up a very different scenario from, say, Fable‘s delay into 2027.

The soulslike market is arguably oversaturated these days, but the first-person perspective of Valor Mortis gives it a unique hook. Developer One More Level proved its talent for first-person action in the Ghostrunner games, making it uniquely well-suited to the challenge of translating soulslike gameplay to the format. The game’s Napoleonic concept could also be a strong point of appeal, as games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Lies of P proved that French history can be a selling point.

The response to Valor Mortis‘s demo has been fairly mixed, but the game still has several months to go before its new release date. Hopefully, One More Level can shape it into something that fully delivers on its undeniable potential and still launch the game with time to spare before Grand Theft Auto 6 releases.