GTA 6 x Phantom Blade Zero PS5

One of the running themes from last week's gaming events was how everyone is trying to avoid October and November release dates, in order to give themselves as much breathing space as possible before GTA 6 arrives.

What that's actually resulted in is an absurd September 2026 release schedule, with multiple high-profile titles launching on the same day. Nobody wants to go close to the next Rockstar open worlder for fear of losing attention to what might be the biggest entertainment launch in history.

That is, except for one PS5 game: Phantom Blade Zero.

Originally set to release in early September, studio S-Game delayed the promising action game to 29th October 2026.

It's currently the most major PS5 release coming out the closest to GTA 6, exactly three weeks beforehand.

Phantom Blade Zero's proximity to GTA 6 could raise concerns around its sales potential beyond its first few weeks on the market — assuming it's any good, of course — but for S-Game, it is not thinking about the competition whatsoever.

In a PC Gamer interview, game director Qiwei Liang said the current GTA 6 release date of 19th November 2026 did not factor into the game's updated launch day at all.

Many people may think we have some marketing strategy to move it from the overcrowded September, and some are very worried that it's closer to November. We don't think about any of this. We only think of the quality of the product itself. I don't think competition can influence, much, the success of a work. Only the product itself matters. So I would say 99% of the decision [was about] development.

The outlet then directly asks about GTA 6, to which Liang responded that S-Game doesn't think about what Rockstar is doing. "We don't even think of the competition, what's launching ahead or after. What matters is how polished the game is, and if we have one or two extra months, we can fix more bugs, do more optimisations, so that we don't need a huge day one patch."

For developer S-Game, it's all about making sure it has the best product possible on day one, instead of positioning the release to its advantage during a quiet period. When the delay was confirmed, it was said the push back will allow for "a number of clearly defined and genuinely important improvements".

Funnily enough, the crowded September 2026 release schedule it was originally part of has now become a reason for other smaller titles to receive a delay. Valor Mortis was pushed back yesterday to 13th October, having only just shared a late September launch a week ago.

We'll see a lot more from Phantom Blade Zero in the coming months as it'll be the subject of an upcoming State of Play livestream. Expect a look at its gameplay alongside a "story deep dive".

Will you be playing Phantom Blade Zero before GTA 6 comes out? Let us know in the comments below.

[source pcgamer.com]