The Duskbloods' Release Date Keeps Getting "Leaked" — and Wrong. Here's What's Actually Confirmed

FromSoftware's next game, The Duskbloods, is one of the most-watched exclusives coming to the Nintendo Switch 2. It's also become a case study in how a rumor mill can run ahead of the facts — with at least two supposedly "leaked" release dates now walked back or unconfirmed, even as the game's publisher insists it's still arriving this year.

What The Duskbloods actually is

The Duskbloods is a multiplayer action-RPG from FromSoftware, the studio behind Elden Ring, Dark Souls, and Bloodborne. It was announced as a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, and that pedigree alone has made every scrap of scheduling information about it a magnet for gaming press and fan speculation — which is exactly what's played out over the past few months.

The retailer listing that wasn't a date

The first round of confusion came from a Finnish retailer, whose product page reportedly showed a release date of March 27, 2026, before quietly changing it to December 31, 2026, according to reporting picked up by outlets including Insider Gaming and NintendoLife. Retailer placeholder dates — especially ones landing on the literal last day of a year — are a well-known industry tell for "we don't actually know yet," and that's how most coverage treated it: as a non-date, not a leak.

The Guardian preview that said September 24 — then said it didn't

The more serious mix-up came from a preview published by The Guardian, which appeared to state a specific release date of September 24, 2026. That detail spread quickly across gaming outlets and social media, given The Guardian's mainstream credibility. But according to reporting from NintendoLife and Eurogamer, Nintendo told press directly that it had no information confirming that date — and the preview's own writer, Kirk McKeand, said on social media that the date was inaccurate and included by mistake. The Guardian subsequently moved to correct the piece. Nintendo itself has not announced a release date for the game at the time of writing.

So, to be clear: as of this writing, there is no confirmed, official release date for The Duskbloods. Two separate "leaks" pointing to specific days have each been walked back by the people closest to them.

What is actually confirmed

Here's where the story shifts from rumor to real news. Kadokawa, the Japanese media conglomerate that owns FromSoftware, reportedly reaffirmed in an investor financial report that The Duskbloods remains on track for a worldwide 2026 launch on Nintendo Switch 2, and explicitly ruled out a slip into 2027. That's a confirmed statement from the company that controls the studio's finances — a meaningfully stronger source than a retail listing or a preview typo, even if it stops short of naming a month or day.

Adding to the picture, FromSoftware ran a closed network test for the game in August, which some fans read as a sign a launch was imminent, while others argued a test that late in the year made a 2026 release feel tight. Neither reading is confirmed; it's pattern-matching on a single data point.

Why the confusion matters

Release-date rumors for big exclusives aren't just fan trivia — they move pre-order behavior, retailer stocking decisions, and even how other publishers schedule their own fourth-quarter releases to avoid or chase the same launch window. A false date attributed to a major outlet like The Guardian can ripple through secondary coverage for weeks before it's corrected, which is effectively what happened here. It's a useful reminder, heading into the busiest release season of the year, to check whether a "leaked date" traces back to an official statement, a retailer's placeholder field, or — as in this case — an editorial slip that was never meant to be read as confirmation.

The regional angle

The Duskbloods lands at a moment when Gulf interest in console and multiplayer gaming is growing fast. Khaleej Times has reported on Abu Dhabi's push to position itself as a regional hub for gaming studios and esports infrastructure, part of a broader UAE strategy — alongside Dubai's own gaming initiatives — to grow a Gulf gaming market that regional estimates put in the billions of dollars by the early 2030s. A high-profile, console-exclusive FromSoftware title is exactly the kind of release that tends to show up in regional retailer pre-order charts and esports community chatter once a real date finally lands.

The bottom line

Nothing here is confirmed beyond Kadokawa's "still 2026, not delayed" statement. Every specific calendar date attached to The Duskbloods so far — March 27, December 31, September 24 — has come from a source other than Nintendo or FromSoftware directly, and the two most concrete ones have since been disputed or retracted by the people who reported them. Readers should treat any date circulating online as unconfirmed until it comes from Nintendo, FromSoftware, or Kadokawa themselves.