To put it mildly, September's video game release calendar has become overcrowded as almost every studio in the world desperately tries to avoid breathing the same November air as GTA 6. It's a problem, but the 24th in particular has quickly become the eye of the September storm.
Shinobi makes it six
Sega revealed on Thursday that Shinobi: Art of Vengeance is finally coming to the Nintendo Switch 2. Amazing, because it's a great game that feels like it was made to be played on that console. Then I saw the release date, September 24th, and after remembering why that date sounds familiar, my heart sank.
It sure looks like Nintendo has something big going up against GTA 6
Nintendo's November is currently empty, with two major first-party games coming in 2026 still missing release dates.
While September is stacked from top to bottom, September 24 is the busiest day of the incredibly busy month. Now that Shinobi has joined the party, there are six major games all releasing on the same day. Control: Resonant and Silent Hill Townfall are the biggest of the bunch. Even the lone two that share the same release date feels like something that really needs to change.
Hot Wheels: Infinite Rush, the latest installment in the Hot Wheels video game series, will also be released on September 24, should its developers also decide not to fold, as will Harvest Moon: Echoes of Teradea. Add in the Switch 2 edition of Dragon Quest 11 S also launching that day, and along with Art of Vengeance, you have six triple-A titles sharing the same release date.
It looks pretty crowded before and after September 24th as well
Look around during the day and things only get worse, both for those who want to play more of these games and for the studios who will all be competing against each other for playtime and sales dollars. The next day, September 25th, we get Onimusha: Way of the Sword. Four days after that comes Minecraft Dungeons 2, which, based on the original's recent record player count, people are more excited about than you might think.
Just before September 24th is Dune Awakening's console launch, Lego Batman is coming to Switch 2 and the day before that is Nintendo's big Switch 2 launch for September, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave. September 24 could also have been even busier. Valor Mortis was originally scheduled to launch on that day, but its creators are the only ones who have blinked so far and smartly sprinted away from that date, fearing their game would be buried under the growing mountain of stiff competition.
You have to wonder how much better it is at this stage to release in September than it would be to just bite the bullet and split the month with GTA 6. If I were a developer, I would think that my game has a much better chance of reaching people if it were to be released in the first week of November, giving two to three weeks before the arrival of GTA 6, than it would if it were to be released alongside five other games in one day.
