It is happening. Rebel Wolves confirmed today via the game’s official X account that The Blood of Dawnwalker has gone gold, with the post reading simply: “The Blood of Dawnwalker has gone gold! Vale Sangora awaits.” Going gold means the master build is finalized, physical discs are in production, and the September 3, 2026 release date is no longer a target but likely to happen unless they chicken out due to GTA VI.
This is the debut game from Rebel Wolves, a studio founded in 2022 by veterans of The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 at CD Projekt RED, led by former Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz. The team of approximately 160 people has been building the game in Unreal Engine 5, published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Rebel Wolves received early funding from NetEase and has been transparent about the game’s development through a steady stream of gameplay reveals and lore drops.
The game itself is a third-person open-world action RPG set in 14th-century Southeast Europe. Players control Coen, a man who is human by day and gains full vampire abilities at night, with a ticking-clock mechanic: you have 30 days and 30 nights to save your family, and every action, quest, and side trip advances that timer. The consequence system goes further than most: it is entirely possible to fail the main objective, go full vampire-monster, and watch the world respond accordingly. The Bandai Namco press materials also confirm that Rebel Wolves has larger Dawnwalker Saga plans, with a CGI teaser shown at Summer Game Fest 2026 suggesting future installments set in different historical eras.
The game has accumulated over 2 million Steam wishlists, which is a pre-launch signal for a debut IP from a studio without a prior release. Whether that translates to sales will depend heavily on launch-day performance and word of mouth in the first week. Tomaszkiewicz’s track record on Witcher 3 earns a substantial benefit of the doubt, but the dark fantasy action RPG space has enough competition in 2026 that Rebel Wolves cannot coast on heritage.
The day-one patch is almost certainly still being prepared, as golding out early gives teams time to polish post-certification content. September 3 is a firm date, and with the PC version confirmed alongside console, this one is on the calendar.
Discussion (4 replies)
Join Discussion →A number of media outlets have had the opportunity to do some play testing with this and all are saying positive things about it. I'm really looking forward to its release and pretty sure I'll buy on day one.
-I'll never buy day 1 but right there with you when a major sale happens.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.eurogamer.net/the-blood-of-dawnwalker-ai[/URL]
-If AI makes prototyping and stand in assets quicker and simpler, and it's not robbing someone of a job but is instead allowing that person to actually move through a workflow faster then I don't really have an issue with it.
This is especially relevant with indie games that often have one to a couple dozen people pouring their life and savings into making their vision come true, I'm all for a tech that makes that process potentially quicker and keeps resources focused on the actual gameplay/narrative etc then I can't begrudge them.
It's one thing when a multi-billion dollar company uses AI to pump out slop so they don't have to pay some entry level artist $25/hr vs a small team of people putting something together with their own or borrowed money.
Edit: Read the article and it looks like this is more or less what the guy was saying.