11 hours Ago
Shadow drops (when a game is revealed and released on the same day) are generally pretty exciting for the developer in question and the fans. However, what if you're a smaller studio that's put months of work into a release date you end up sharing with Oblivion Remastered? That's the fate Post Trauma developer Red Soul Games found itself in earlier this week, releasing on 22nd April 2025 — the same day Bethesda scheduled its reveal livestream for and then immediately launched the RPG remaster. Explaining that "everything [else] more or least gets buried" when a shadow drop occurs, Raw Fury (the publisher of Post Trauma) founder Jonas Antonsson spoke up for Red Soul Games.
"We don’t have the cash nor muscle to throw around, so everything is carefully planned," he explained. "Including when to release, based on other releases etc — to try to maximize the chances of getting attention." Antonsson touches on his love for Oblivion, as he played it when he was younger.
However, he feels the "pain for our team and especially the developer we’ve worked with for years — who has poured his heart and soul into his game." Many games release every single day — especially on PC platform Steam — so all titles will face some level of competition no matter when they release. Though, it is indeed true that Oblivion Remastered was the kind of release that sucks up most of the attention during and after its launch.
Red Soul Games appears to be at least seeing the funny side of the situation, as it's posted a video to Twitter where it reveals a new "spiritual release date" of 23rd June where it'll "re-release" the game with livestreams and giveaways. The title itself isn't being pulled — it remains on all platforms it launched on — but the studio is attempting to take things in its stride and continue pushing Post Trauma. There were concerns that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 would be overshadowed too by Oblivion Remastered, but that doesn't seem to have happened.
Sandfall Interactive confirmed it's now sold over one million copies of the new RPG, and that doesn't include Game Pass players. How do you feel about shadow drops? Can you understand the frustration from smaller developers? Post your thoughts in the comments below..
