2026's Dark Horse GOTY Contender Delayed, Now a 2027 Frontrunner

Published Oct 7, 2026, 12:47 PM EDT Austin Manchester is a writer and editor living in New York City. At Polygon, he covers gaming and entertainment news, reviews new video games, interviews behind-the-scenes talent, and more. He enjoys discovering hidden gems and sharing them with Polygon's audience. Previously, he was the gaming editor for AIPT Comics and has written for other outlets like XDA, How-To Geek, and The List. He enjoys soulslikes, character-driven RPGs, and third-person shooters plucked straight out of the Xbox 360 era. He also likes to flex his non-video game nerdy knowledge sometimes, whether that's explaining who's who in the new Wolverine game or recommending a comic book series about a sentient sword. You can demo At Fate's End now Image: Thunder Lotus Games With 2026 nearing its end, there's no better time to start thinking about end-of-year awards. We expect some unreleased games, like Grand Theft Auto 6, to be in contention come awards season, but there are other undated games we've had our eyes on too. One is At Fate's End, the next game from Spiritfarer studio Thunder Lotus Games. It immediately caught our eye when it was revealed last summer with a 2026 launch window, and plenty of us have been eagerly anticipating its release since. However, At Fate's End has been pushed back to 2027, meaning an early GOTY contender for next year has already emerged. "We’ve made so much progress on the game since its 2025 reveal but it needs a little more love and care to ensure its release is as smooth as possible. We’ll let y’all know a more precise date once we have all our ducks in a row," Thunder Lotus said in a statement on Steam. "The team is very impatient to get At Fate’s End in your hands and we promise it’ll be worth the wait!" All is not lost, however, as you can get a sample of At Fate's End now. Get an early preview of At Fate's End You can download the At Fate's End demo over on Steam. Unlike Spiritfarer, and more in line with Thunder Lotus' other games, At Fate's End will feature exciting combat. You'll duel with swords, but also words as you essentially argue with and debate player character Shan's siblings in battle. Shan wields the God Sword Aesus, and she must take her estranged siblings' swords from them so that she can rule as Princess of Swords. The demo gives a little taste of everything in At Fate's End, including its combat and cast of characters. If you play the demo and want the developers to know your thoughts on it, Thunder Lotus has set up a survey for feedback. At Fate's End was the talk of the town at GDC Image: Thunder Lotus Games Game Developers Conference 2026 was full of exciting demos for upcoming games to try out. We got to try out several eye-catching demos, including ones for 2026 GOTY contender Mina the Hollower and the upcoming nostalgia-laden puzzle game Screenbound. At Fate's End was one of those demos, and it stole the show. At Fate's End follows "a succession drama about bitter siblings fighting over the throne, all while unpacking their own insecurities. It’s the same kind of human storytelling wrapped in fantasy that made Spiritfarer so special," Polygon's Giovanni Colantonio wrote about the demo. It featured exploration, mystery investigation, and a boss fight against one of Shan's siblings, Camilla. That boss fight wasn't an ordinary battle as the fight paused midway through for Shan and Camilla to engage in a war of words (as siblings do). Camilla is defeated not by stabbing her to death, but by having the two sisters reconcile. "Thunder Lotus is deconstructing the concept of a video game boss fight, turning it into a more theatrical act built around big emotions. That completely changes the feel of what could otherwise land as a fairly standard fantasy adventure game," Colantonio wrote. "I’m not looking forward to playing more for the easy rush of beating a hard boss; I’m eager to broker peace between Shan and her siblings instead." Familial conflict is at the heart of At Fate's End Image: Thunder Lotus Games Thunder Lotus is pulling from real-world history and its developers' histories for At Fate's End. "There is no history that is more fucked up than aristocratic transitions and inheritance. It's terrible. It's terrible," creative director Nicolas Guérin told me last summer. Guérin wants players to "feel like these characters belong to your family," and Thunder Lotus is infusing those characters with personal stories from the people working on the game. Guérin didn't hold back in discussing the flaws of the cast of At Fate's End. "They're all fucked up in a way. They all represent a failure of their own making, but [...] they all have that part of them that you still like, they're all lovable, they're all terrible," he said. Still, just like with Spiritfarer, the game will push you to develop empathy for all those siblings you duel. You'll have to wait to duel them all until next year. At Fate's End is now slated to launch sometime in 2027 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. Last year, Guérin said Thunder Lotus would "love to make" a Nintendo Switch 2 version, but the studio has not announced At Fate's End for Switch 2 at this time.