Don't Nod Entertainment has announced it will delay the release of its new narrative adventure game Lost Records: Bloom & Rage to avoid competing with Life is Strange: Double Exposure.
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage was originally scheduled to release later this year while Life is Strange: Double Exposure will launch on October 29, 2024. In a post on social media, Don't Nod announced it will be pushing the game back to 2025.
The reason for the delay is actually a bit heartwarming as Don't Not, the original developer of the first Life is Strange game for Square Enix, wants to "ensure both have space to shine."
With both games being narrative adventures and releasing around the same time in 2024, it could've resulted in suffering sales. Now with each having their own release window far enough apart, there should be room for both to hopefully flourish.
Announced at the 2023 Game Awards, Lost Records: Bloom & Rage is a narrative journey about four former friends who are reunited 27 years after an unexplained event made them promise to never see each other again. We don't know the exact reason for their reunion right now, but it's something players will discover as they recreate the story themselves through "choice and consequences," according to creative director Michel Koch.
The official synopsis teases:
Film your last summer in Velvet Cove playing as Swann, a quirky introvert who loves capturing reality through the lens of her trusty camcorder. Get to know Nora, the rebellious firecracker; Autumn, the thoughtful leader; and Kat, enigmatic and strong-willed.
From making music videos in Nora's garage to sharing secrets under the stars... to discovering dark places shrouded in mystery – it’s gonna be a summer packed with unforgettable moments for this newfound sisterhood.
As summer comes to an end, so does their friendship. A downward spiral culminates in an unexplained event that makes them promise to never see each other again. Now, twenty-seven years later, fate reunites them to confront the long-buried secret that they left behind in 1995.
The girls’ promise, made all those years ago, forever altered the course of their lives. The reason behind this promise is in your hands as you make choices both in the past and the present. Shape the narrative of both timelines, in 1995 and in 2022.
What really happened that summer?
Life is Strange: Double Exposure, meanwhile, is a new supernatural murder mystery and the next installment in Square Enix's narrative adventure franchise, which was originally started by Don't Nod. Development on Double Exposure is being handled by Deck Nine Games, who previously worked on 2017's Life is Strange: Before the Storm, 2021's Life is Strange: True Colors, and 2022's Life is Strange Remastered Collection.
The game reunites players with Max Caulfield, a photographer-in-residence at the prestigious Caledon University, who discovers her closest new friend Safi dead in the snow — murdered. In order to save her, Max tries to Rewind time, a power she hasn't used in years but instead opens up a parallel timeline where Safi is still alive and still in danger. Using her newfound power, Max much Shift between the two parallel timelines to solve and prevent the same murder.
Also arriving in 2025 is another adventure game, Mixtape. Developed by Beethoven & Dinosaur, developers of the award-winning game The Artful Escape, Mixtape — inspired by classic coming-of-age movies — follows three friends who embark on one more adventure together on their last night of high school.