GTA 6 Has Turned September Into a Video Game Battle Royale

We’ve known for years that the entire games industry would give Grand Theft Auto 6 the widest berth possible, but this week’s State of Play has proven Rockstar’s behemoth as some kind of car-jacking Moses, parting the Red Sea of releases and pushing tides of competition aside. As a result, it seems like almost the entire end-of-year slate of releases has been forced into a single month. GTA 6 has turned September into a video game battle royale, and it’s potentially going to be a bigger blood bath than anything we saw in the Wolverine trailer.

There are now five of what I’d consider “heavy hitters” wrestling for space in September. The Blood of Dawnwalker has a head start, launching on September 3, but this massive vampire RPG only has two weeks of freedom before Marvel’s Wolverine slices its way onto the scene on September 15. The following week there’s three games in two days - Control Resonant and Silent Hill: Townfall, both landing on September 24, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword the day after.

Arriving around these five are a number of other significant games that will be fighting for any attention they can get. Illfonic’s Halloween creeps into stores on September 8, the long-awaited Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 drop-pods in on September 17, and the Trails in the Sky 2nd Chapter remake arrives the same day. The console version of Dune: Awakening carefully steps into place on September 22. And in the first couple of days of October, there’s Ubisoft’s 3D remake of Rayman Legends, a remaster of Dynasty Warriors 3, and the brand new Ace Combat 8.

And that’s just the stuff we already know about. Xbox’s showcase later this week will almost certainly reveal a September or October launch for Gears of War: E-Day. Rumours all have us expecting Nintendo to throw an Ocarina of Time remake into the world later this year, and we’re still without release dates for Star Wars Zero Company and Halo: Campaign Evolved. September stands to get even busier, the competition even fiercer.

Every single one of these games has their own dedicated fanbase, be that niche or gargantuan, and so each will sell a respectable number of copies. But this tidal wave of competitors – a slew of games that all look really good – will no doubt erode away at the potential winnings. Even the most dedicated player can’t be expected to buy into this entire buffet, and so some of the dishes are inevitably going to go cold.

It feels like storm clouds are brewing over Control Resonant developer Remedy, the incredibly talented Finnish studio whose visionary games never quite connect with the size of audience they deserve. FBC: Firebreak understandably cost the company – few people were looking for a merely okay live service shooter in the 2020s – but Remedy has struggled with sales even on its critically adored projects. It took over a year for Alan Wake 2 to make a profit. The company’s new CEO, former EA studio head Jean-Charles Gaudechon, has already said that Remedy’s unique approach must be “protected”, and I can only hope he can find a way to successfully weather this storm.

But while Remedy’s struggles paint Control Resonant as the most vulnerable of all September’s releases, almost none of these games are guaranteed slam dunks. Marvel’s Wolverine will likely enjoy the smoothest ride – the next chapter in Insomniac’s Marvel series, it’s already looking incredibly good, and is the exact sort of thing a great deal of PlayStation owners are locked in for. While Logan isn’t quite as popular as Peter Parker, and so probably not destined to beat Spider-Man 2’s record of the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game in a 24-hour period, it’s nonetheless almost guaranteed to shift copies faster than a fastball special. But it’s worth remembering those reports of concern over Spider-Man 2’s spiralling budget – if Insomniac didn’t get that under control for Wolverine, it may need to sell many millions to break even. Not an ideal situation when there will be folks holding onto their cash as they wait for GTA 6.

The Blood of Dawnwalker faces its own hurdles, too. This deeply ambitious RPG is helmed by the director of The Witcher 3, whose new studio Rebel Wolves includes multiple veterans of CD Projekt Red among its staff. The game looks great, but the busy period poses many threats. Will PlayStation owners want to embark on a 50-70 hour RPG when Wolverine is just around the corner? And will Geralt fans, now safe in the knowledge that there’s a brand new expansion for The Witcher 3 arriving next year, be willing to give this one a miss in exchange for some of September’s shorter offerings that can be completed before GTA arrives on the scene? Debut projects are often a make or break situation, and I really hope that being the first of the September games – arriving after what appears to be the classic long summer drought – plays in Dawnwalker’s favour.

It may be that those who don't have Rebel Wolves’ head start on the action may re-consider their position, certainly after the likes of Summer Game Fest and the Xbox Showcase add even more dates to the pile. We’ve already seen Phantom Blade Zero abandon its September 9 launch in favour of October 29 – a date that’s perilously close to GTA 6’s D-Day of November 19, but free from the competition of a glut of third-person action games where you cut things up with blades. Developer S-Game puts the delay down to important last-minute refinements, but intentional or otherwise, stepping outside the September battle arena will likely be beneficial for this incredibly stylish action RPG.

Phantom Blade Zero’s 50-day gamble is nothing compared to some, though. The parting of this Red Sea of releases means there’s a near and far side, and we’ve already seen a couple of games that were originally destined for 2026 make a tactical backslide into next year. Playground Games’ reboot of Fable, which had been promised to release this year after being delayed out of 2025, has now repositioned itself for a February 2027 launch. Xbox’s Matt Booty provided a straightforward reason for this: "so it can have the dedicated moment it deserves". There’s no easy victory within the shadow cast by GTA 6, and so there's no shame in stepping backwards for a second time.

Also backflipping into February 2027 is Tomb Raider: Legacy of Atlantis, the flashy remake of Lara Croft’s original 1996 adventure. Yes, this means Crystal Dynamics’ and Flying Wild Hog’s celebration of Lara’s origins misses its intended 30th anniversary launch, but those few months could buy Tomb Raider a much stronger victory. It also potentially means that we’ll get two outings with Lara next year, as Tomb Raider Catalyst - a brand new game that will push the series’ timeline forward for the first time since 2008’s Underworld – is also due to launch in 2027.

There are other shifts, too – The Witcher 3’s Songs of the Past expansion was originally planned to launch this year, but was pushed into 2027 “to achieve the best possible result.” While that may refer to development polish, there’s no denying that Geralt’s one last hurrah will enjoy more attention if it stays outside of GTA 6’s gravity well. And as this week continues, with Summer Games Fest, the Xbox Games Showcase, and others announcing new dates, we’ll likely see this space around GTA become increasingly defined. Few will brave arriving within weeks of the biggest game of all time. Some will try to get ahead of it, others will find safety in 2027. And as September fills up, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get a scattering of last minute dashes as developers and publishers realise that the ninth month of 2026 wasn’t quite the safe haven they thought it would be.

September is going to be tough, both for avid players attempting to find a way to play everything they’re interested in, and developers fighting for the sort of attention that’s basically a lifeline in this industry right now. It’s undeniably an exciting time – almost every game I've mentioned is something I want to play, and it’s clear that the games industry has so much to offer this year beyond the open world crime simulator on everyone’s wishlist. I just hope the impossible task of navigating GTA 6 doesn’t mean there’s devastating casualties along the way.

Matt Purslow is IGN's Executive Editor of Features.