Publishers have shifted titles into September or February 2027 to steer clear of GTA 6, a pattern that has intensified in recent weeks. GTA 6's presence has loomed over release schedules since its proposed autumn 2025 release date, through each subsequent delay and calendar shift. That knock-on effect has packed September and February into crowded months of their own amid The Great GTA 6 Avoidance. Some projects, including Phantom Blade Zero have moved closer to GTA 6 instead to find breathing room elsewhere on the calendar.
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy producer Eric Chort said the studio weighed GTA 6 throughout production while settling on a 2026 date.
All along the production, we were like, okay, our release date could be this year - and there's GTA. All the studios in the world were thinking about it. When you know that GTA is coming, you know that in terms of marketing, in terms of players, the time to play games, GTA is like the ogre, it's the biggest one.
Chort said studios try to adapt and avoid the collision, but noted 2026 is stacked with strong competition regardless.
So you try to adapt, you...try to avoid it. But then this year we see that there are only good games, or at least a lot of good games, so we're like, okay, that's the industry, and we try to make the best game possible.
He added that authenticity and differentiation remain the studio's focus once a release date is locked in.
As a studio, this is the best you can do. You try to make the best game possible with what you have - the more authentic one. Have your identity make it different; try to make it different from all the other ones. After that, you've done your best and you'll see. But definitely it's an odd year to go out.
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy sits at the front of that busy late-August stretch. The project is a different game from the previous Plague Tale titles, with a heavier focus on combat and a new hero named Sophia, while remaining a distinctly Plague Tale experience in many other ways.
