Survival climbing game Cairn has been delayed until 2026

"The delay is so the team can spend more time on "optimization, debug and polish." Creative director Emeric Thoa said that "after 5 years of work, it makes no sense to rush it" as "we want to be proud of the game we launch." Delays are never fun, but they are a whole lot better than buying a broken game at launch."

"There is a demo available, which has racked up 600,000 players on both platforms. The Game Bakers are beefing up that demo on October 13, adding ghost recordings of speedrunners and staffers. The company says these ghosts can be followed to "check new techniques or discover new routes and hidden areas." Mario Kart and other racing games have been doing something similar for years."

Cairn has been delayed to the first quarter of 2026 to allow additional optimization, debugging, and polish. The development team emphasized that after five years of work they do not want to rush the launch and want to be proud of the final product. The game is slated to release on PC and PS5. A demo is available and has reached 600,000 players across both platforms. The demo will be expanded on October 13 with ghost recordings of speedrunners and staff that players can follow to learn techniques and discover new routes and hidden areas. Cairn features intense, UI-free climbing and a free solo mode that requires attention to the avatar’s breathing and body language.

Read at Engadget