New Game is Like BioShock If You Played as a Magician

Magicians: The Devil’s Deal is a brand-new game coming from developer Uppercut Games and publisher Focus Entertainment. Based on its recent reveal trailer, Magicians: The Devil’s Deal looks like its taking some inspiration from the beloved BioShock series, with its first-person action gameplay looking a tad similar, at least at first glance.

Magicians: The Devil’s Deal was announced during the Xbox Showcase on Sunday, being one of over 20 reveals. Coming in at around an hour and 10 minutes, the latest Xbox Showcase featured new announcements, world premieres, and long-awaited updates on a plethora of highly-anticipated Xbox titles, including the brand’s three flagship franchises right now, Fable, Halo and Gears of War. Magicians: The Devil’s Deal‘s reveal was sandwiched right in between Minecraft Dungeons 2 and Valor Mortis, both of which got a September 2026 release date.

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Magicians: The Devil’s Deal Gives The BioShock Formula a Magical Makeover

Currently planned for a 2027 release, Magicians: The Devil’s Deal is a single-player “narrative-driven FPS where stage magic becomes real,” according to the official description on the game’s Steam page, which popped up shortly after the Xbox Showcase announcement. In Magicians: The Devil’s Deal, players will assume the role of Jacob Menteuro, a renowned stage magician who’s been cast into Hell. Only rather than a fiery endless pit filled with demons, this version of Hell, dubbed ‘Theatreland’, will see Menteuro face off against a rogue’s gallery of theatrical rivals who betrayed him in life, all set against the backdrop of an “infernal reflection of Victorian London.”

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)

Though it’s shown very briefly in the reveal trailer, Magicians: The Devil’s Deal‘s gameplay bears a somewhat strong resemblance to BioShock, at least in this initial showing. From a first-person perspective, players will fling a variety of spells at enemies, just as they would with Plasmids or Vigors in BioShock. What’s wholly unique to Magicians: The Devil’s Deal, however, is the protagonist’s use of a traditional stage wand, which he gracefully twirls around his fingers several times during the reveal trailer. Players will also seemingly be able to block oncoming melee attacks, launch enemies into the air, throw objects at foes, launch energy-imbued playing cards, and manipulate the world around them with magic.

Although the original announcement for Magicians: The Devil’s Deal only listed a 2027 release date for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Cloud, and Xbox on PC, it has been confirmed that the game will also launch on PlayStation 5. Magicians: The Devil’s Deal will also be a day one Xbox Game Pass game when it launches in 2027.

Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)

An Australian studio, Uppercut Games has worked on a handful of titles over the last decade or so, the most recent of which was Submerged: Hidden Depths, a boat-based third-person adventure game that has a ‘Very Positive’ user rating on Steam. Focus Entertainment has been in the gaming industry for even longer, having been founded 30 years ago. Along with publishing a wide range of titles, Focus Entertainment also produces its own original games through its various in-house studios, which include Dotemu and Deck13.