Saw: Genesis Delayed to 2027: Bloober Team Needs More Time

Bloober Team has pushed Saw: Genesis from 2026 to 2027, citing a need for more polish. The asymmetric horror game impressed few at Summer Game Fest.

Did you mark your calendar for Saw: Genesis in 2026? Bad news: you'll have to wait an extra year. Bloober Team has officially delayed the asymmetric multiplayer horror game to 2027. The studio says it needs more time to get the game to a place the team is satisfied with. That's a pretty honest admission, especially since some devs use Steam Early Access precisely to whip a game into shape.

But in the crowded world of licensed multiplayer horror, a rough first impression can be worse than a reverse bear trap to the face. Since Dead by Daylight kicked off the craze in 2016, we've seen tons of these games, and no two are quite alike. That's what keeps it exciting—seeing how studios turn iconic horror moments into playable nightmares. Yet when I checked out Saw: Genesis at Summer Game Fest, I walked away underwhelmed.

The 3v1 setup was hard to follow in my hands-off demo. Set about a century before the films, one player becomes a Jigsaw-like "Judge" who runs three victims through a maze of torture devices, trying to kill them before they can escape. The trio might get brief chances to fight back, but a skilled Judge could lurk in unreachable corridors and never give them an opening. Complex puzzles for victims and best practices for the Judge were really tough to grasp. With more time, some of that might click—but the first impression was rough enough to worry me that players will bail because it feels unintuitive right away.

Animations and visuals also looked lacking. I figured those could be polished over time, but if the core experience stays unclear or convoluted, Saw: Genesis may struggle to compete—especially against Red Barrels' already successful Outlast Trials. So yeah, the delay feels warranted.

I've been rewatching the Saw movies lately, and it reminded me they're not very good. Many of the ten are plainly bad. Even the first one, which I long remembered as a low-budget horror milestone, now feels packed with plot contrivances and nu-metal music-video editing. And yet, I'm totally on board with Saw: Genesis if it works as a game. I had zero reverence for Killer Klowns From Outer Space, but Illfonic's adaptation was a blast. I'm eager to see how Saw: Genesis evolves between now and the next update.

Sure, a Halloween launch would've been perfect—"If it's Halloween, it must be Saw," right? But I like that Bloober Team is taking a few extra months to clean things up. This is the studio that told me it's done making "shitty games," and while that's not a guarantee, you have to respect the intent. Will you be picking up Saw: Genesis when it finally arrives in 2027?