SOMA's Spiritual Successor ONTOS Delayed to 2027

2 hours ago 2

SOMAs Spiritual Successor Wont Come This Year

Published Jul 2, 2026, 10:02 PM EDT

Tay Garcia is a Contributor at DualShockers and a Brazilian journalist who has been covering games professionally since 2017. Her work spans news, reviews, previews, lists, guides, and features, with a particular focus on horror, retro games, theories, puzzle games, Metroidvanias, Soulslikes, and story-driven titles.

Before joining DualShockers, Tay worked as an assistant editor and contributed to Jovem Nerd, one of Brazil’s largest pop culture outlets, as well as Editora Europa, a major Brazilian publisher known for gaming and technology magazines. She has also worked as a streamer, YouTube creator, and podcaster. Tay holds a B.A. in Journalism, has postgraduate training in Social Media, and is certified in professional video game journalism. She was also a member of Podcast UP, which won the Cubo de Ouro Award for Best Podcast in Brazil in 2021.

When Frictional Games released SOMA back in 2015, the survival horror genre experienced a profound, unforgettable shift. Instead of relying solely on jump scares, the studio crafted an unsettling, philosophical sci-fi narrative that forced players to question the very fabric of human consciousness and artificial life – all while delivering a phenomenal horror game.

Combined with their work on the Amnesia franchise, the developers have spent years sitting comfortably on a pedestal as undisputed masters of psychological atmosphere. Naturally, when word initially got out that the team was working on a brand-new cosmic mystery called ONTOS, the community immediately turned its full attention to it. However, it seems our journey into the deep unknown is going to require a little more patience.

A Heavy Delay for an Ambitious Vision

SOMAs Spiritual Successor Wont Come This Year 2

In a recent update shared across social media platforms that has sent ripples across the horror community, publisher Kepler Interactive, alongside the creative team at Frictional Games, officially announced a major scheduling change for their upcoming project, ONTOS.

Instead of hitting storefronts during the backend of this year as originally intended, the highly anticipated sci-fi thriller has been pushed completely out of its current calendar slot. ONTOS is now scheduled to make its dark debut sometime in 2027, and, unfortunately, the development team didn't provide a specific release window beyond that broad year.

While hearing that a major title won't make its promised annual deadline is always a tough pill to swallow, the developers were incredibly quick to explain and clarify why the extra development time is vital for the game's overall quality – and it is actually good news in the grand scheme of things.

ONTOS is now scheduled to make its dark debut sometime in 2027, and, unfortunately, the development team didn't provide a specific release window beyond that broad year.

According to their statement, the scale of what Frictional Games is trying to build this time around has surpassed anything they have ever attempted in the past. So, to ensure the delicate layers of horror and environmental storytelling merge seamlessly, rushing the project out the door simply wasn't a viable option.

“ONTOS is our most ambitious game to date, both in terms of its size and scale, and in the depth and layers of our story and gameplay,” the official joint statement from Frictional Games and Kepler Interactive reads. "In order to deliver this vision, we have decided to push the release of ONTOS to 2027.”

So let's look on the bright side for a brief second: while waiting another full calendar year for a spiritual successor to SOMA might feel agonizing, giving a high-concept psychological game more time in the oven is almost always the right move. After all, nobody likes the idea of having to face technical bugs or unpolished gameplay mechanics on top of the main threat in a horror game.

Last but not least, the studio also promised that they won't leave us completely empty-handed until then, confirming that they are planning to share much more about this mysterious world and its unique characters relatively soon.

Either way, we will have to wait just a little bit longer before we can finally unravel whatever terrifying mysteries are lurking in the dark corners of this new IP. I'm definitely bummed that we won't get to experience ONTOS this October, especially since my spooky season backlog was already screaming for a heavy dose of Frictional Games' signature existential dread. But if the end result is another sci-fi masterpiece that rivals the brilliance of SOMA, then 2027 truly can't come soon enough!