Ghost of Yōtei braves October release date in face of GTA 6

We have a winner: Sony is the first publisher to dare put a fall release date on a major video game in the year 2025, Grand Theft Auto 6 be damned. Ghost of Yōtei, Sucker Punch’s sequel to its 2020 open-world samurai adventure Ghost of Tsushima, will come to PlayStation 5 on Oct. 2.

It’s the first tentative toe-dip into the fall release window by a game industry that has been running scared of Rockstar’s behemoth. GTA 6 has been confirmed for a fall release by Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two Interactive, and other publishers are reportedly considering delaying their games to get out of its way.

One publishing executive told The Game Business that a late October or early November release date for GTA 6 was their greatest fear: “We don’t want to launch just before or just after the game. If it arrives in late October, that means you either have to launch early – which a lot of people seem to be doing with the recent glut of summer release dates. Or go later, putting you up against the Black Friday sales.”

Prior to Ghost of Yōtei’s release date announcement, the latest big releases on the 2025 calendar were Borderlands 4 and Marathon, both due on Sept. 23. It seems like Sony considers day two of October early enough to be safe.

Sony also debuted a new story trailer for the game, with a lot of cut-scene and a little bit of gameplay footage, detailing lead character Atsu’s quest for vengeance as she hunts down six names responsible for the death of her family.

Pre-orders for Ghost of Yōtei begin at 10 a.m. EDT on May 2, including for a packed Collector’s Edition, which includes a replicas of Atsu’s Ghost mask, sash, and the Tsuba from her katana. Sony didn’t announce a price for this edition, though. The standard edition of the game will cost $69.99 and there will be a $79.99 digital deluxe edition, too. Head over to the PlayStation Blog for full details.