Date, price, new platform
Witchbrook is finally taking enrolments: January 28, 2027, $24.99, and now a PlayStation 5 version too. For a game that has had a long run-up, that is a lot of boxes ticked in one announcement.
Chucklefish announced the date this week, alongside a new trailer shown during Nintendo’s Indie World showcase. The magic life-sim is Chucklefish’s fourth in-house game, with co-development support from Robotality, according to the studio’s press release.
Day one on every console, Game Pass included
Witchbrook launches on PC, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 on the same day. The PS5 version is the new part. Chucklefish says plenty of its community had been asking for it, and thanks PlayEveryWare for helping make it possible. The press release adds that the game will also be on Xbox Game Pass from day one.
We think that matters more than the date. Launching everywhere at once means nobody gets told to wait for a port, and this is the kind of game people recommend to friends on other systems. Online co-op for up to four players only works as a pitch if those friends can all join in.
A school sim with exams, potions and a ghost for a chancellor
The trailer shows spellcasting, studying, exams, library browsing, salve and potion-making, tarot readings and a first look at some of the magical creatures. Chucklefish’s dev blog also points to the ghostly Chancellor of Witchbrook College, whom students have lovingly dubbed “The Deadmaster”, and a knowledge system that sits behind the studying.
The studio is also introducing a new covenmate, Kiara Chandra, whom it describes as a sardonic and intelligent post-grad student with an aptitude for the Arcane Arts. Covenmates have storylines that unfold as friendships grow, the blog says.
“We have poured detail and care into every pixel, to create a truly handcrafted experience,” Chucklefish and Robotality write on the dev blog. Pixel art is the whole sell here, so we’d hold them to that. They also say they took additional time over the last year to make the game.
Cheap enough to take a chance on
The launch price is $24.99, with regional prices to follow closer to launch. Steam lists minimum PC requirements of Windows 10 or later, a quad-core CPU, 8 GB of RAM, a DirectX 11 graphics card with at least 4 GB of VRAM and 2 GB of storage. The recommended specs are blank on the page for now. We’d like to see those before calling it undemanding.
Physical Standard and Collector’s editions are in the works, but they arrive a little while after the digital launch, so as not to affect the release schedule. A formal announcement is promised later. For anyone weighing up their next big game, the schedule is already crowded: 007 First Light’s Switch 2 date lands about seven weeks after this, so January and March are already filling up.
If you’re stocking up on RPGs, The Blood of Dawnwalker’s first big update is worth a look too. Review codes arrive in the new year, per the press release, so the verdicts follow after that.
