In August, The Astronauts, the innovative game development studio, revealed that their dark fantasy first-person shooter, Witchfire, is set to launch on Steam in Early Access during the fourth quarter of 2024. This exciting title was initially released on the Epic Games Store in September 2023, also as an Early Access title.
However, it appears that Witchfire is making its Steam debut much earlier than anticipated. The Astronauts have confirmed that the game will officially launch on Valve’s PC game store on Monday, September 23. According to a post on Witchfire’s Steam page, the release is scheduled for Noon Eastern Time (9 am Pacific Time) on that day.
Initially, The Astronauts believed they would release the game on Steam in November or December 2024. However, as detailed in a recent blog update, they decided to accelerate the launch for two main reasons: the end of their Epic Games Store exclusivity period on September 20, and the upcoming fall and holiday season, which is expected to feature intense competition from major AAA titles. This led to the decision to expedite the Witchfire release.
In conjunction with its Steam launch, the game will receive a notable free content update on Monday, which will also be made available for the Epic Games Store version. This update will introduce achievements to Witchfire for the first time, alongside a new witch vault to explore in the game’s Island of the Damned location.
Moreover, players who purchase the game during Early Access will now be equipped with the Striga stake gun. The blog post highlights:
It pins enemies to walls or tears them apart, and the projectile ignites mid-flight. But there are new elements, too—new Mysteria. We’ll let you discover these for yourselves.
This new weapon pays tribute to the stake gun featured in Painkiller, a game that many members of The Astronauts team contributed to while at People Can Fly. When Witchfire releases its final version in late 2025, this weapon will be accessible to new players at a later stage.
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