← All articles

News 15 September 2026

Deep Worlds is choosing Beautiful Light's exact release date, and GTA 6 is part of the decision

Back from gamescom, Deep Worlds' CEO says the studio is deciding the precise Early Access day, calls it more a marketing call than a development one, and names GTA 6 as a factor. A week later came the first level art from the second map.

Looking down from the open door of the extraction helicopter at operators still on the ground below

Beautiful Light is still listed for December 2026, with no day attached. That is about to change. In a post on the studio's official Discord on 8 September 2026, Deep Worlds' CEO Eric "Aherys" Rajot said the team is now deciding on the precise release date, and will announce it as soon as the decision is made.

GTA 6 is on the table

The most striking part of the update is how candid it is about why the choice is hard. Aherys named GTA 6 as a factor, and described the decision as more of a marketing call than a game development one.

Our reading: a small independent studio does not want its Early Access launch to land in the same weeks as the biggest release of the year, when attention, streams and press coverage all go one way. Deep Worlds did not say which way the decision is leaning, and the store pages have not moved. Until they do, December 2026 is still the official window. The release date page tracks it.

What the team says it is working on

The same post was a general update after gamescom, where Aherys said a lot of good business happened. He also mentioned the studio's new office, and listed the current development priorities:

  • A new sound system
  • The skill tree
  • AI
  • A game tutorial
  • The second map

His summary: everything is currently on track. He shared a very early screenshot of the skill tree alongside the post, warned that the team is still exploring a lot of ideas and that it will not be the final version, and said the studio would probably share more on these topics soon.

A week later: the second map

On 15 September, Deep Worlds followed through. The studio posted a first set of screenshots of its second map's level art in the same Discord channel, introducing it as something it had kept secret for a while. It is the first set of images Deep Worlds has explicitly presented as the second map's level art.

The most recent development video, published on 25 August 2026, also has a chapter on level art, without saying which map it shows:

Watch on YouTube from 19:10Players FLY now?! BEAUTIFUL LIGHT - New Anomalies, new guns, new equipment and more DEV UPDATE #9
The latest development video, published 25 August 2026, The level art chapter starts at 19:10.

What is still unknown

  • The exact release day, and whether it stays in December 2026
  • The price: the only official figure dates back to April 2023
  • The name of the second map
  • Anything about the skill tree beyond the fact that it exists and is early

For the monsters side of the launch, see the anomalies guide, and check your PC against the system requirements before the date lands.

Sources

  • Deep Worlds' official Discord (discord.gg/project-bl), #leaks-wip: post by Aherys, CEO, 8 September 2026, and post by Matavatar, Head Staff, 15 September 2026
  • Beautiful Light on Steam, checked 15 September 2026
  • Development update videos presented by Psychoghost for Deep Worlds, on YouTube

BL Guide, unofficial community coverage of Beautiful Light.