(Image credit: Rockstar Games)

Once upon a time, choosing when to release your videogame was simple. If you were a major publisher, you put your game on shelves between one and three months before Christmas. If you were a midsize or indie developer, by contrast, you released your game anywhere that wasn't the holiday season. Anywhere except for summer, that is. Nobody released games in the summer, because received wisdom suggested that everyone would be outside.

Around 10 years ago, however, things started to change. Too many big games began releasing around Christmas, so major publishers wanting to escape the squeeze started releasing games between February and April. But then those months became overcrowded, too, so big games started landing in May and even June. Indie developers, meanwhile, increasingly struggled to keep their heads above water, trapped between those drifting triple-A icebergs and Steam's relentless torrent of New Releases.

(Image credit: Team Cherry)

Then Rockstar revealed GTA 6 would be delayed into May 2026. Developers releasing this year beathed a huge sigh of relief, while studios eyeing the first half of 2026 began tugging at their collars. But this wasn't the end of the story, as GTA 6 was pushed back again to November 2026, sending yet more shockwaves into the future, though some developers, like Devolver Digital, have committed to releasing alongside Rockstar's commercial megalith.

But Grand Theft Auto 6 wasn't the only big game to send other developers running for cover in 2025. After years of silence which, counter intuitively, led to hype levels of ludicrous proportions, Team Cherry emerged from the shadows and formally announced the release date for Hollow Knight: Silksong, which was just a couple of weeks after said announcement.