With Halloween on Saturday, thoughts are naturally turning to spooky games. Horror games, scary levels within non-scary games, games about witches or ghosts or vampires. A few months ago, if you’d asked me, I’d have said sure, I’ll probably be playing FromSoftware’s The Duskbloods on Halloween this year. But unless there’s a very unexpected surprise release coming up, that doesn’t seem to be happening. In fact, fans are speculating confidently by now that The Duskbloods will be delayed all the way into next year.
This theory has been floating around for a while now, but is only growing more persistent as the year wears on. The Duskbloods, as far as FromSoftware and Nintendo have told us, is coming out sometime in 2026. But we’re very, very rapidly running out of 2026, and the game still doesn’t have a firm release day pinned down, or even a window. It seems wildly unlikely that it would launch in November given that The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Grand Theft Auto 6 are stealing the focus ahead of Thanksgiving and Black Friday. And while it could manifest in December, usually Nintendo and every other major company wrap things up for the holidays and don’t drop big releases after Thanksgiving, often not until February the following year.
Now, all of that is just conjecture based on past trends, but it does feel right. And what’s not helping the case for a 2026 Duskbloods release is the total radio silence from FromSoftware and Nintendo on the game for months now. In fact, we really haven’t heard anything substantial about the game since the closed network test back in August. This event was the first time anyone in the general public was really able to wrap their head around what The Duskbloods even was—a PvPvE game with a highly unusual multi-round structure and varying objectives depending on character, location, random events, and strategy. The response to the network test varied wildly: some people really dug it, while others, like myself, struggled to follow what the game wanted us to be doing at any given time, and didn’t feel especially well-rewarded when we somehow accomplished it. There were also issues with the network itself during the test’s first time slot, potentially suggesting that there may have been some trouble behind the scenes with the basic necessity of getting everyone online to play together at once (though it worked fine after that first session).
Given the odd mix of emotions coming out of that network test, I wouldn’t be surprised if FromSoftware felt The Duskbloods needed a bit more time cooking in the coffin before it was ready to rise. While I’m not sure exactly what I’d change to make the game a bit more friendly, I do think it needs something to help it be more accessible and less confusing to new players, and a bit more grace for people who just aren’t that into PvP.
For the most part, the community seems resigned to a later release than expected, especially given how crowded the end of 2026 has gotten. Mostly, they’re just hoping for some communication as to what’s going on with The Duskbloods. Anything will do! The current fan consensus is that we won’t hear more until after Ocarina of Time is well out the door, and I’m inclined to agree: a big release date trailer at the Game Awards seems likely at this stage.
Ah, fine by me. Take your time, FromSoftware. Back to Nightreign!
