The Blood of Dawnwalker arrives in September, and Rebel Wolves is already weighing post-launch plans: smaller free DLCs may happen, but the studio’s real ambition is to turn the dark fantasy RPG into a full franchise over time.

The Blood of Dawnwalker is shaping up to be one of the most promising RPGs of 2026, with a September 3 release date now on the calendar. The new dark fantasy RPG from the director of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has already shown plenty of potential, but in the modern games industry, launching a major title is no longer the end of the story. Polish, optimization, and a strong first impression matter at release, but so does the plan for what happens after the first wave of attention has passed.

Rebel Wolves CEO Konrad Tomaszkiewicz spoke to Polish business outlet PAB Biznes about the studio’s early thinking around post-launch content for The Blood of Dawnwalker. “We recently started conversations on this topic to plan a roadmap and schedule for small, free DLC, but we haven’t made a decision yet” he said. If the team does move forward with that idea, players could expect smaller additions such as new side quests and cosmetic items rather than massive expansions. The goal would be to keep the game alive after release without necessarily turning it into a traditional DLC-heavy production.

The Bigger Question Is Whether Dawnwalker Becomes a Franchise

Tomaszkiewicz has not talked about larger narrative expansions, and right now all signs suggest that this may not be the direction Rebel Wolves is taking. The studio has already made it clear that The Blood of Dawnwalker will tell a self-contained story, so it may not be building the game around the classic model of several major story DLCs. That does not mean the world is meant to be a one-off adventure. On the contrary, a much longer-term plan is already beginning to take shape behind it.

Neither the studio nor Bandai Namco has shared a specific number for pre-orders, but Tomaszkiewicz said he is satisfied with the current data. Even more important to him is the fact that around 1.5 million players have added the RPG to their wishlists, which is a valuable signal for both a publisher and a developer today. Players are more cautious than they used to be, especially with new IPs. “Gamers are often reluctant to pre-order and prefer to wait for extensive, in-depth reviews” he said, which is understandable even when a project is being made by developers with serious RPG credentials.

Rebel Wolves has already indicated that the saga could continue with entries set in very different eras, places, and cultures. Tomaszkiewicz, however, is not pretending that a sequel is guaranteed. Everything depends on how the first game performs commercially. “Our goal is that, after the release, the company’s cash flow will allow us to launch a sequel” he explained. In other words, the ambition is there, and the franchise plan exists, but The Blood of Dawnwalker must first prove itself on the market. If it does, Rebel Wolves may not only deliver a strong RPG, but also lay the foundation for a full dark fantasy series.

Source: 3DJuegos