Castlevania: Belmont's Curse launches October 15 — Evil Empire built the first new Castlevania in over a decade

Konami and French studio Evil Empire are bringing back Castlevania with Belmont's Curse, launching October 15, 2025 across multiple platforms. It's the first brand-new Castlevania game in more than a decade, and Konami handed the keys to Evil Empire — the studio behind Dead Cells and its acclaimed Return to Castlevania DLC.

The game opens in a gothic interpretation of Paris, and is described as a 2D action-exploration title promising faster and more fluid gameplay. Evil Empire Creative Director Emmanuel Nouaille and Konami Producer Tsutomu Taniguchi both sat down with press at a hands-on preview held at the Chapelle Sainte-Jeanne-d'Arc in Paris' 14th arrondissement. Taniguchi explained the choice of studio plainly: "The first is Evil Empire's passion for Castlevania. The second is their expertise in action games. Castlevania has always been an action series, so it was essential that the controls, gameplay, and overall feel lived up to players' expectations." Nouaille, for his part, kept it modest: "Our best résumé was simply our work." The collaboration started smaller — Evil Empire originally pitched only a DLC tribute — but grew into a full game through ongoing conversations with Konami. Taniguchi's visit to the studio after the Return to Castlevania DLC wrapped, where he quietly explored the castle, found hidden Easter eggs, and gave the team a thumbs up, apparently sealed the deal.

One notable caveat: the Switch version runs at 30fps, while all other platforms hit 60fps. Konami confirmed this on the official Castlevania website. Evil Empire built its reputation on Dead Cells, a roguelite action-platformer that became one of the most successful indie games of its generation, and the Return to Castlevania DLC was widely praised for its faithfulness to the source material — making the studio a credible choice to steward the franchise's return.

With a hands-on preview already out and a firm October 15 date locked in, the marketing push is clearly underway. Switch owners will want to weigh the 30fps trade-off, but for a series that's been dormant this long, most fans seem ready to take what they can get.