Remember in late 2020, when the "Cyberpunk 2077" juggernaut caused other game developers to change their release dates to avoid being steamrolled: Summerfall Studios, developer of David Gaidar's musical RPG "Stray Gods" announced today that it is slightly delaying the game's release date from August 3 to August 10 so that "Baldur's Gate 3" doesn't kill it.

"We want everyone to have plenty of space to check out 'Stray Gods' when it comes out. Baldur's Gate 3 is (we too!) It's hotly anticipated and we want to give our fans room to celebrate Stray Gods.

"We also want to make sure that everyone can play it on their device of choice at launch. This is a big deal for any team, much less an indie, to ship their first title. By extending the week, we can ensure that performance is as equal as possible across all platforms."

While it is a bit unorthodox for a studio to straight-up admit that it is intentionally avoiding big games, it is not without precedent: when Grinding Gear Games paused the release of Path of Exile's 3.13 endgame expansion, PoE and Cyberpunk 2077, the company made it clear that it did not want to "put players in a situation where they have to choose between the two." Rockfish Games admitted the same thing when it delayed the release of Everspace 2.

What makes this case different (and particularly interesting), however, is that Baldur's Gate 3 changed the release date of its PC version to June to avoid the real elephant in the room: Bethesda's upcoming sci-fi RPG Starfield, Baldur's Gate 3, scheduled to be released on August 31, a week before Starfield's September 6 release: but Baldur's Gate 3 and Starfield are both big RPGs, and seven days is not enough time.

And let's not forget that Starfield itself was supposed to be released last year on 11/12/22, but was pushed back to early 2023 and then late 2023. So if you want to blame someone for the delay of Stray Gods, you can point the finger at Todd Howard.

In other words, Baldur's Gate 3 moves because of Starfield, and Stray Gods moves because of Baldur's Gate 3. Stray Gods is certainly different and I sincerely hope it will be good, but with all due respect to Summerfall Studios with all due respect to the company, I think the chances of that happening are slim. Still, it's good news for RPG fans: it's always welcome to have more time to play a game before other games come knocking on your door.

Baldur's Gate 3 (PC): August 3

Stray Gods: August 10

Starfield: September 6 (didn't change, because, why not?