The death of the quiet release window
There was a time when planning a game launch was almost as simple as picking a season. Big publishers dropped their flagship titles a couple of months before Christmas to hit peak shopping season. Smaller and indie studios avoided that window entirely and tried to find quieter months so their games could breathe.
Summer used to be off limits because the assumption was that players would be outside and not buying games. That rough model actually worked for a while. If you were a small PC game hoping to find an audience, you aimed for those calm patches of the calendar where you were not competing with giants.
Then the market changed. Around a decade ago the pre Christmas window became overcrowded. Too many huge games launched on top of each other and publishers started pushing their releases into the new year. February to April became the new hot zone for PC and console blockbusters. Very quickly that period filled up as well, and the spillover moved into May and June.
At the same time, digital stores like Steam were exploding. Every day saw a fresh wave of new PC titles. Instead of a few dozen boxed games a year you suddenly had thousands of digital releases. For indie developers and smaller studios this felt like trying to stay afloat between drifting triple A icebergs and an endless torrent of new releases landing on Steam.
By 2025 the result is brutal reality: there is no good time to release a game. The calendar is permanently crowded. What matters now is not avoiding a particular season but avoiding specific giant titles that can suck all the attention and spending out of the room when they launch.
How mega releases warp the calendar
Big releases do not just dominate the week they come out. They reshape the entire release schedule around them. In 2025 the clearest example is Grand Theft Auto 6. Even before Rockstar nailed down a precise date the game was already causing headaches. Everyone knew it was coming but nobody knew exactly when which made it incredibly hard to plan.
When Rockstar first said GTA 6 would arrive in 2025 developers everywhere started trying to predict the landing zone. Studios wanted to make sure their RPG, strategy game or indie platformer was nowhere near GTA 6 on the calendar. Launching a mid sized PC game right next to such a monster is a fast way to vanish from the charts.
Then the release date moved. First GTA 6 slipped into May 2026 which brought relief to teams targeting 2025 and fresh panic to studios that were banking on an early 2026 window. Later Rockstar delayed the game again to November 2026. Each delay fired another shockwave through the schedule as publishers adjusted their plans yet again.
Some studios are even leaning into the chaos. Devolver Digital for example has publicly committed to releasing a game on the same day as GTA 6 purely on principle. Most teams however want nothing to do with that kind of direct competition. Even if your game is excellent, trying to share headlines with something as anticipated as Grand Theft Auto is extremely risky.
GTA 6 is not the only gravitational force warping the calendar. Hollow Knight: Silksong created its own mini earthquake. After years of silence the developers at Team Cherry finally emerged and announced that Silksong would be released just a couple of weeks after the reveal. The hype around this sequel had been building for so long that the announcement hit like a bomb.
Smaller titles like Demonschool and Baby Steps quickly moved away from Silksong’s release date. Their developers openly said that launching so close to such a highly anticipated metroidvania would do their games no favors. Even with great reviews they risked being ignored in the flood of Silksong coverage and streams.
A few studios tried to stand their ground. Atari released Adventure of Samsara on the very same day as Silksong. It did not go well. In a week when every PC gamer’s attention is focused on Hornet’s new adventure, a lesser known title struggling for the same audience is easily lost.
Surprise launches can be just as disruptive. Microsoft shadow dropped Oblivion Remastered without warning. On PC this instantly became the big story of the day and a must play nostalgia hit for many RPG fans. Indie devs unlucky enough to launch at the same time saw the impact in their numbers almost immediately.
One developer said that on Oblivion day they noticed sales of their game stop almost completely from mid afternoon onward. Another reported a ten to twenty percent haircut on daily revenue around the surprise launch. It is not that these games were suddenly worse but player attention and wallets are finite. When a classic Bethesda RPG remaster appears out of nowhere, a lot of people will choose to spend their free evening and their cash there instead.
What this means for PC gamers and devs in 2026
Looking ahead, there is no sign that this pressure will ease. Steam continues to grow. More studios than ever are making PC games. At the same time a handful of gigantic franchises keep getting bigger and casting longer shadows over the calendar.
In 2026 GTA 6 will continue to bend the schedule. As its November date approaches, many publishers will try to avoid the blast radius entirely. If Rockstar delays again the whole pattern will shift once more. Other heavy hitters like Resident Evil Requiem have already planted flags, with a launch in late February that many smaller games will likely sidestep.
Even games that do not yet have fixed release dates can cause planning stress. A new Fable for example could become a major event the moment Microsoft feels it is ready. Studios trying to map out their PC releases for next year must treat these unknowns like hazards on the radar.
There is no easy solution. Coordinating the industry so that only one game launches each day is obviously impossible. Shadow drops will keep happening because they are great marketing moments for big platforms. Hype trains for beloved sequels will continue to grow as years pass between entries.
For players this crowded landscape has pros and cons. On one hand you are never short of something new to play and big surprise releases can be exciting. On the other hand many excellent smaller PC games risk being buried, not because they are bad but because they chose the wrong week to launch.
For developers it means release strategy is more important than ever. You must study the calendar, watch for announcements and be ready to pivot if a giant suddenly plants itself on your chosen date. The age of the safe window is over. In today’s PC gaming market you are always sharing the stage with someone. The only question is whether that someone is another indie hopeful or a behemoth like Grand Theft Auto, Resident Evil or a long awaited sequel like Silksong.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/2025-saw-game-developers-scrambling-to-avoid-heavy-hitters-like-grand-theft-auto-6-and-hollow-knight-silksong/
