Garfield stirrar ner i en staplad september och ryggar inte tillbaka

Publishers are crowding their big fall games into September to dodge Grand Theft Auto 6's November release, and the pileup tightens as the month goes on. September 24 alone now holds Control: Resonant and Silent Hill: Downfall, with Onimusha: Way of the Sword arriving the next day. Some teams have stepped aside. One More Level pulled Valor Mortis out to October. Microids is not moving Garfield - Escape From Monday.

To mark Garfield's birthday, Microids dropped the first trailer for the cat's new game on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. The footage shows 3D platforming through food-themed levels, with Garfield fighting evil tomatoes and riding eggplants. A press release promises players will embody Garfield in every form, turning him into a turkey, a cowboy, and more. The trailer also reaffirms the September 24 date the studio had locked in long before Summer Game Fest turned that slot into a brawl.

Microids booked the date first, which is the cleanest argument for refusing to budge. The publisher had its slot well ahead of the wider showcase season, so there is a fair case that the games crowding in later are the ones intruding. I respect the stubbornness here, because moving on principle to avoid a fight you scheduled first sets a precedent worth avoiding. Garfield blinking would be the more cynical, market-tested choice.

A crowded date is only a problem when the games chase the same players, and these mostly do not. The audience for a 3D Garfield platformer and the audience for a Silent Hill game barely overlap. I think I'm one of the few people sitting in the center of that particular Venn diagram, which is exactly why the calendar collision matters less than the headlines suggest. Nothing else launching September 24 puts Garfield in a nightmare after a plate of spinach lasagna, forcing him to reactivate his taste buds, though Control: Resonant edges closer to that premise than it has any right to.

The pitch lands somewhere near a 3D Mario game, food levels and shapeshifting included, played entirely straight. Whether that holds up against heavier hitters on the same day is a separate question from whether sharing the date hurts it. Microids is betting it does not, and the bet fits the character better than a retreat would.

The contrast with Valor Mortis sharpens the point. One More Level confirmed that game for September 24 during the Xbox Games Showcase, then moved it weeks later once the scale of the month became clear. The studio said partner-showcase dates get locked early and that it wanted to give the game and players' wallets room to breathe.

"September has become absolutely stacked with incredible looking games. We knew this was a possibility, but when you're in a Partner Showcase as we were, dates get locked weeks in advance."

— One More Level

Two studios, the same booked date, opposite calls. One read the room and slid to calmer water in October. The other planted its feet. Garfield - Escape From Monday launches September 24 on Switch, PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X, sharing the day with Control: Resonant and Silent Hill: Downfall and daring either to nudge it.

Read also, One More Level moved Valor Mortis, its first-person soulslike set in an alternate Napoleonic Wars with a supernatural plague, from September 24 to October 13, citing a month already packed with Marvel's Wolverine, The Blood of Dawnwalker, and Onimusha: Way of the Sword.