TANUKI: Pon's Summer Delayed, Launches for Xbox Series, Xbox One, Switch, PC, and Game Pass - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 01 January 2026 / 2,600 Views
Publisher CRITICAL REFLEX and developer Denkiworks have announced TANUKI: Pon's Summer has been delayed to sometime in 2026. It will launch for the Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC via Steam, and Xbox Game Pass.
"The game’s release window is moved to 2026, with a more precise date to be announced later," said Denkiworks. "We’re sorry to those who may be disappointed, and looking forward to playing Pon’s adventure soon. Delaying a game is never easy, but we’re confident that some extra development time will be put to good use."
View a trailer of the game below:
Read the latest details on the game below:
We were overwhelmed by the great feedback and warm response to the demo! But, we were inspired to work even harder on features that would improve the experience for all players! Here’s a taste of what we’ve been doing:
- Navigation Improvements – From player-placed tags to a minimap. We heard that sometimes finding your way around town was a bit tough. We wanted to give you some tools to make sure your deliveries are a breeze!
- Mission Improvements – Objective markers, player-chosen mission order. Less restricted, more exploration-friendly.
- A Lot More Activities! – Important jobs and engrossing hobbies for Pon, their amount and variety are ever-growing.
- New Town – A whole complete island to explore, just across the bay.
A Little More About This New Area
Once you get used to lush forest, a short train ride will take you to the town across the bay. There are different flavors of a small comfy town, after all. Rocky mountainside places have their own appeal, doubly so if you’re a BMX-fiend! Rich colors, windier paths, trickier rails to grind. The town has a different feel to it, but it will gladly welcome a busy tanuki.
And, of course, a new town means new people to meet and new things to do. Learning a respectable skill from a local stonemason, or just helping a local business stay afloat!
As it turns out, financing and repairing a grand shrine doesn’t come easy to a pair of short paws. There are more and more skills for Pon to learn: people are willing to teach him, but the effort will have to be all his! From rolling giant boulders (Sisyphus would be jealous) to operating heavy machinery, the tanuki will have a summer to remember.
There’s also time for more meditative hobbies. Scouting for stag beetles, rare butterflies and the like to fill your journal, for example. Or trying your best to dig your paws in and not let your absolute WHOPPER of a catch drag you into the river while fishing!
As you can see we’ve been working super hard to make TANUKI: Pon’s Summer the best experience it can be!
We’re feeling pretty confident about our hard work so far, and we actually feel the current demo is not-representative of our wonderful world anymore!
In the coming days the demo download will be removed. We wanted to give you some more time if you’d like to try it out. But, rest assured the final experience will be much improved!
The coming months will still be full of important development. Exploring a new feel for narrative and dialogues, improved character models and animations, polishing existing activities and adding more, maybe we’ll make a junk-based helicopter…
Thank you for your patience, we hope to have you biking around in 2026! Happy Holidays!
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
