Game Quality More Important Than Competing with GTA VI: Phantom Blade Zero Developers Explain Release Delay

Currently, the game is scheduled for release in late October.

S-GAME studio commented on the decision to postpone the release of the action game Phantom Blade Zero, which was previously expected in September. Despite players' concerns that the project might get lost amidst the release of Grand Theft Auto 6, the developers claim that market competition was barely considered when making the decision.

In an interview with journalists, project lead Civey Liang stated that the main reason for the delay was the desire to bring the game to the highest possible quality. According to him, the extra time will allow the team to fix more bugs, conduct additional optimization, and avoid the need to release a large patch on release day.

Liang noted that many attribute the delay to the crowded September release schedule or fears of GTA VI's release, but within the studio, such factors were not considered decisive. According to him, about 99% of the decision was solely related to the development process and the state of the product itself.

The head of S-GAME also emphasized that the success of a game depends primarily on its quality, not on competitors in the market.

In addition to polishing the gameplay, the studio continues to work on expanding the project's accessibility to the audience. In particular, the developers are exploring the possibility of launching Phantom Blade Zero on Steam Deck, despite the known difficulties of porting Unreal Engine 5 games to Valve's portable platform.