Don't Nod is delaying its spiritual successor to Life is Strange and being refreshingly honest about the reason

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

Embark on a new narrative journey by the creators of Life is Strange. Film your summer of 1995 and create memories of a lifetime with your new friends. 27 years later, confront the dark secrets that made you all promise to never speak again after that fateful summer.

Don't Nod, the studio that created the Life is Strange franchise in partnership with Square Enix, has announced that it will be delaying its upcoming self-published title Lost Records: Bloom & Rage into 2025. Lost Records was initially announced at The Game Awards last year, with the release window at the time given as "late 2024".

If you're the gossipy type, it's probably not hard to speculate on why this might have happened, since Square and LiS's adopted step-developer Deck Nine recently announced a new game in the series. While a new Life is Strange was always understood to be a likelihood, few expected the fifth main game to return quite so strongly to the series' roots, with original protagonist Max Caulfield returning as the player character in Life is Strange: Double Exposure, due to release this October.

What's pleasantly surprising, though, is that Don't Nod hasn't taken the circumspect route with regards to their reasons for postponing Lost Records, with CEO Oskar Guilbert saying quite plainly: "We know that many of our fans are eagerly awaiting this game, just as they are the recently announced next instalment of Life is Strange. Let's give both games the space they need to shine. The wait will be worth it."

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