We May Finally Know Deathloop's New Release Date

A listing on the New Zealand PlayStation Store might have given away the official release date for Arkane Studios' time-repeating new shooter, Deathloop. On the product page, the release date is listed as "20/5/2021," which would mean that Deathloop will be available to play on PlayStation consoles on May 20, 2021.

While there is no confirmation from Arkane or any other official source confirming that May 20 will be the launch day for Deathloop, there are some compelling details that support that date. When the developers first delayed Deathloop in 2020, they gave an update explaining that the challenges of remote work would push the game to Q2 2021. Considering that Q2 is usually understood to be a window of time between April 1 and June 30, the leaked date would put it just about in the middle of that target.

There is also a chance that the listing on the New Zealand PlayStation Store is merely the result of someone clicking the wrong box when preparing the page. This may have changed the date from something along the lines of "to be announced," or just "Q2," to a target release date provided by Arkane.

However, there is an equal chance that the May 20 date is merely a placeholder, which is also possible, considering that it is right in the middle of the Q2 date range. Mistakes like this have happened on the PlayStation Store before. In 2017, the US PlayStation Store listed God of War's release date as March 22, 2018, which quickly changed to Dec. 31, 2018, a date everyone knew was a placeholder. God of War ultimately arrived on shelves on April 20, 2018.

Even if May 20, 2021, does turn out to be the day that Deathloop goes live for PlayStation 5 owners, there will still be some release date questions left unanswered. The game premiered as a timed PlayStation 5 exclusive. However, while Deathloop was in development, Microsoft announced plans to acquire ZeniMax, Arkane's parent company. While Microsoft has since said that it will honor exclusivity deals already on the books with Sony, it remains to be seen how the delay or any other factors will affect the timed exclusivity length.

The only thing sure about Deathloop's arrival on Microsoft's Series X|S consoles is that it will be available for subscribers of the Xbox Game Pass the same day it releases for Xbox owners. Making high-profile new titles such as Deathloop, alongside Bethesda's properties such as The Elder Scrolls 6 and Starfield, was a key point of Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax.

However it all shakes out, it seems like Deathloop is on track to hit its Q2 2021 release date for the PlayStation 5 and PC.