Important Timing Update for PS5 & Xbox Releases

Hey, Kristalans

We have an important update regarding Kristala on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. In short, demos and preorders are still slated for this month, but they won't be dropping on November 11th, as originally planned.

The demos themselves are fully complete, and all content on our end is ready. What’s holding us up now is the console certification process, during which Sony and Microsoft review our submissions to ensure everything meets their specific platform requirements.

Here's a bit more information on where things currently stand for each platform...

Progress Update for PlayStation (PS5)

Last week, Kristala’s PS5 demo officially passed certification with Sony! If no other issues pop up between now and then (and we don’t anticipate that they will), the demo will launch at midnight (EST) on November 12th, just one day later than initially planned.

So, why the delay then? During the certification process, we learned that Sony requires certain related items like pricing records and product notices to be published at least eight days before launch. 

While we'd already populated these details, we hadn’t attempted to actually publish them from draft status until the demo build passed certification. This is when we first became aware of the eight-day publishing requirement, which ultimately forced us to select a new launch date.

This is one of those unforeseen speedbumps we couldn’t anticipate until we met it head on, but we're happy to report that the PS5 demo delay is minor, and you’ll be able to dive into the world of Ailur very soon!

Preorders won’t release on the 12th, but we intend to have them ready ASAP, too.

Progress Update for Xbox (Series X|S)

Full disclosure: navigating the certification process for Xbox has been much more difficult than it has been with Sony, largely due to issues that have arisen within the Microsoft Partner Center dashboard itself.

Thankfully, Xbox store listings are already certified, and we’re now finally in the first round of certification for the demo. We hope to pass Microsoft demo certification on the first try—especially given that this build passed for Sony—but it’s possible we'll need a couple rounds.

This means we ultimately don't yet feel comfortable providing a firm launch date for the Xbox demo and preorders quite yet, but we're very confident both will launch in November (and ideally very soon).

As always, we’ll keep you posted on all of the above and communicate the official new launch date as soon as we possibly can.

A Sincere Message to Our Console Community

We know you've been waiting to play Kristala on your platform of choice, and how meaningful this milestone also is for you… That’s why remaining completely honest and transparent with you is paramount to us.

Kristala is a fully self-published game, which means we don't have an external publisher (one with valuable knowledge and experience with these certification processes) guiding us through these console pipelines. Every new step is a learning experience, and we’re taking it all in stride.

While unideal, please know that delays during certification—especially for first-time indie console launches—are common. We anticipated a learning curve, but still encountered unforeseen speedbumps that only became visible once we reached them, despite our best-laid plans.

Rest assured that the demos are done, the game is stable, and we’re clearing these final hurdles as quickly as we can. Thank you so much for your continued patience and grace as we push through the final stages of console preparation.

We’ll share updates as soon as each milestone is approved. Please drop any questions in our Discord or send them via email to hello@astralclocktowerstudios.com. We’re here to help.

-Astral Clocktower Studios