LEVEL-5’s Professor Layton and the New World of Steam has been delayed and will no longer launch in 2025. Announced at Tokyo Game Show 2025 along with a new trailer, the Switch and Switch 2 title will now be a 2026 release, although no release window was shared. The game was originally announced with a brief teaser trailer over two years ago during a February Nintendo Direct and we’ve gotten a few more trailers ever since.
Set one year after the events of Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, the upcoming entry takes place in Steam Bison, America. It is there that the power of highly advanced steam engines has brought about a new world, one that surpasses even London’s technological development. In Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, the familiar Hershel Layton is joined by his self-proclaimed first apprentice, Luke Triton. For family reasons, Triton is now living in the U.S., and he loves solving everyday mysteries around town.
While it is disappointing that Professor Layton and the New World of Steam has been delayed to 2026, developer LEVEL-5 proved earlier this year that we have nothing to worry about. Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time was delayed numerous times after originally being slated to release in October 2024. We finally got our hands on it in May 2025, and in my review, I was impressed by how fun the game was. In fact, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time might be my biggest surprise of the year.
