Bloodborne Kart Takes A Pit Stop Thanks To Sony Lawyers

There’s almost never any Bloodborne news. Whenever the game does get talked about online, it’s either copium or hopium as fans of FromSoftware’s gothic Soulslike chomp at the bit for a remake or remaster of the 2015 action RPG. While no such thing is in the works as far as we know, there is a PS1-style Bloodborne kart-racing game currently in development by an ardent fan, and it was set to be released at the end of this month. Unfortunately, Sony has reached out to this game maker and forced her to rebrand, which has resulted in a delay.

Read More: This Rad Fan-Made Bloodborne Racing Game Finally Has A Release Date

Though it originated as an April Fool’s Day joke in 2021, indie developer Lilith Walther decided that her little fan game Bloodborne Kart was too good to remain a mere gag. So, in March 2022, she turned the joke into a reality, announcing that the macabre racing game was in development and would come out “when it’s ready.” Well, ready was almost here, as she revealed in November 2023 that not only would Bloodborne Kart be free when it launched, but also that it would release on January 31. It would have, anyway, if it weren’t for that meddling Sony.

Bloodborne Kart suffers a ‘short delay’

Walther posted to X/Twitter on January 26 to confirm that Sony “contacted” her about Bloodborne Kart. She didn’t detail the contents of the company’s message; however, she clarified that because the company said she “need[ed] to scrub the branding off of what was previously known as Bloodborne Kart,” which she’s complying with, the game will miss its previously planned January 31 release date.

“Like I’ve said in multiple interviews, we were all expecting this to happen so we could be pleasantly surprised if it didn’t,” Walther said in a follow-up tweet. “It happened, so we’re shifting gears (ha) to take care of it. I’ll get back to y’all ASAP when we figured out a new release date!!”

While it’s a bummer to hear that Sony’s only interest—for now, anyway—in Bloodborne seems to be stamping out a connection to a fan-made project, at least Walther is excited about having “full creative control” of the game, whatever it ends up being called and whatever form it takes now that Bloodborne’s getting wiped clean off it. All we want is some Bloodborne news, Sony, and we’ll leave you alone. I promise.

Kotaku has reached out to Sony for comment. Walther told Kotaku over Twitter DMs that due to legal reasons she’s “not allowed to talk about it” right now.

Read More: Creator Of Bloodborne PS1 Demake Announces Bloodborne Kart

If Sony’s going to give us nothing new under the Bloodborne sun, at least there’s the game’s long-lost cousin to tide us over. I’m talking about Neowiz Games and Round8 Studio’s Lies of P, an action RPG that’s as close to Bloodborne as we’re going to get for now. It’s the best Soulslike of 2023, so you should check it out.