Calculator

Launch Week Planner Helper

Type Calculator
Topic Launch Planning
Updated 2026

Enter your release date and tell the tool who's running what. It works backwards from launch and surfaces the things worth planning early, so the important ones do not slip. Use it as a starting point and adapt it to your game.

The day your game goes live. The dates below are planned backwards from this one.
Pick a release date and the timeline builds itself.
Pick every platform you are shipping on. Each one adds its own store checks to the timeline.
Your launch timeline
Pick a release date above and your launch timeline appears here, in order.
Michele Di Nardo Michele Di Nardo

Hi, I'm Michele (or Miki for short).

Mapping out your launch? If you want someone who's run these timelines before, let's talk.

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Notes
  • Press keys need more lead time than most teams give them. Three weeks before launch sounds like plenty. In practice, a journalist needs time to play the game and file the piece before the embargo. If your game runs longer than 5 to 6 hours, send keys earlier, sometimes 4 to 5 weeks out for a narrative game or an RPG. This timeline uses 21 days as a baseline. Move it to fit your game's length and genre.
  • Line up the embargo lift and the trailer. When you run a review embargo, push the trailer and your big marketing beats live the moment the embargo lifts. Drop the trailer early, then go quiet while reviews sit under embargo, and you bleed your own momentum. With no embargo, send the trailer 7 to 10 days before launch so the algorithm has time to work.
  • A day-one patch is a launch decision, so make it before launch week. If you know a real fix is coming, plan the patch window now. A patch that lands 3 days after launch still catches most of the review traffic. A patch that lands 2 weeks out misses it. Decide this in advance, not in the middle of launch day.
  • Treat this as an estimate. Real dates move with your genre, team size, and platform mix. Use it as a planning scaffold, then confirm the hard dates against your own production plan.