Mixtape is finally launching this May

Beethoven & Dinosaur's coming-of-age adventure Mixtape is officially launching on May 7, 2026. Annapurna Interactive revealed the release date in a new trailer. The game is headed to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, and Nintendo Switch 2.

The game was originally revealed back in June 2024 at the Xbox Games Showcase with a planned 2025 launch. The studio pushed that window back late last year. Game development is notoriously unpredictable, but the new May date finally gives us a solid target for one of the most visually distinct titles in recent memory.

From rock tours to game development

Beethoven & Dinosaur established a very specific way of blending music and interactive storytelling with 2021's The Artful Escape. The Melbourne-based studio is headed by Johnny Galvatron, who spent years touring as the frontman of an electro-rock band before pivoting to game development. That background bleeds into everything the studio makes. Music is not just a background element here; it is the core mechanical driving force.

Their first game was a psychedelic glam-rock space opera. Mixtape grounds things in 1990s Northern California. The story follows three friends on their last night of high school. They are heading to one final party, and the journey triggers dreamlike playable memories tied to a cassette tape playlist. You play as Rockford, a teenager who has dreamed of being a music supervisor since childhood, desperately trying to curate the perfect soundtrack for her life.

The soundtrack is heavily licensed and aggressively nostalgic. The tracklist includes Joy Division, The Smashing Pumpkins, Iggy Pop, DEVO, and The Cure. The game uses these songs to anchor different vignettes. The trailer shows the kids doing standard teenage things like skateboarding, hitting baseballs, and sneaking into abandoned theme parks. Then the visuals frequently slip into surrealism. You might find yourself putting on a fireworks show from the backseat of a moving car, or floating through the night sky above a glowing radio tower.

A rare spot on the wishlist

I play a lot of games. A LOT. Mostly retro. It takes a lot to get me genuinely excited about a modern release. Mixtape is one of the few upcoming titles that I have wishlisted. We see a lot of indie games trying to capture the 1990s, but they usually just slap a CRT filter over low-poly models and call it a day.

The art style here looks like a playable stop-motion film. Everything has a slightly chunky, tactile quality to it. The animation intentionally skips frames to make the characters look like clay figures. This perfectly matches the hazy, unreliable nature of teenage memories. In the trailer, a character remarks that the "optimal teenage experience is unobtainable." The game seems to agree. It presents these memories as exaggerated, almost mythical events rather than strict reality.

It is easy for coming-of-age stories to fall into cheap nostalgia bait. But Beethoven & Dinosaur seems far more interested in the messy way teenagers actually remember their youth. A minor argument feels like the end of the world, and a good night out with friends feels like floating above the trees.

The game will be available on Steam, the Epic Games Store, and consoles, and you can find more details on the official website. It will also be a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass. I am just hoping the licensed soundtrack does not become a licensing nightmare a decade from now.