The survival climbing game Cairn has been delayed until the first quarter of 2026. Development studio The Game Bakers had previously announced a release date for November 5 of this year.
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.
We don’t have an actual release date yet, but the game’s still coming to both PC and PS5. 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.
For the uninitiated, Cairn is a tough-as-nails rock-climbing game with a free solo mode for added difficulty. There’s no UI feedback, so players have to pay attention to the avatar’s breathing and body language. It feels like a more intense cousin of the peaceful Jusant, which is another rock-climbing sim.
