Don’t Nod delays Lost Records: Bloom & Rage in favor of the upcoming Life is Strange installment
In favor of both Life is Strange: Double Exposure and Lost Records: Bloom & Rage having their moments in the spotlight, Don’t Nod has pushed Lost Records’ release from Late 2024 to Early 2025.
Don’t Nod announced its new game Lost Records: Bloom & Rage with a teaser trailer during the 2023 Game Awards in December, giving players a new IP to look forward to with the promise of a late 2024 release. What is known about the game has continued to be fleshed out in the following months, Don’t Nod teasing more about the characters and story, giving players a look at a game that looks and feels similar to Life is Strange. Fans of Life is Strange and Don’t Nod’s games as a whole have been excited ever since, this game becoming a highly anticipated release for what’s looking to be a stellar lineup during the Fall and Winter of 2024.
Included in that stellar lineup, is a new Life is Strange game from Deck Nine, Life is Strange: Double Exposure. Sometime after Life is Strange 2, Square Enix chose to give development of the Life is Strange IP exclusively to Deck Nine, ending Don’t Nod’s involvement with the franchise. It’s unclear why this choice was made, but Deck Nine has held the reigns for the Life is Strange franchise since around 2020 — the exact time of Don’t Nod’s ended involvement unclear.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure was announced during the Xbox Showcase on June 9th with a confirmed release date of October 28th of this year. With Lost Records, there was no confirmed release date as of yet, but player intuition had many thinking it would be a Fall release. It’s looking like this was a correct guess, as Don’t Nod announced on Friday that they would be pushing Lost Records’ release to early 2025 in order to give space to the Life is Strange release as well as their own game.
Given the excitement both developers from Don’t Nod and Deck Nine’s official social media account have shown for each other’s new releases, there was presumably no malicious intent behind choosing to release Life is Strange within the same quarter as Lost Records. In fact, it was most likely a choice made by Square Enix; a guesstimate, as well, since the exact release date had not been shared publicly by Don’t Nod yet. Considering Square Enix chose to cut ties with Don’t Nod despite their wishes to continue with the franchise, this could have been a strategic choice to hinder Lost Records’ release.
Either way, Don’t Nod has chosen to be the bigger person, and move their release date, disappointing many fans, especially those who were looking forward to such close releases between the two games. Given that Lost Records was announced so much earlier than Double Exposure, one would think this would be the other way around, with Deck Nine choosing to give Don’t Nod the spotlight. It’s possible that Don’t Nod may have approached Deck Nine and/or Square Enix about a change in the release date for Double Exposure and been met with push back, forcing them to be the ones to change their release date.
Of course, it’s impossible to know what’s going on behind the scenes, with Don’t Nod providing only a brief statement online stating they wished to give both games “adequate space to shine,” and Deck Nine having yet to comment on the change. The only thing that’s certain is that this was not what fans, or Don’t Nod, were hoping for.
You can still wishlist Lost Records: Bloom & Rage on all platforms, an exact release date pending. Life is Strange: Double Exposure is also available to wishlist on all platforms, releasing October 28, 2024.
