Meet Magicians: The Devil's Deal, a magic shooter from the team behind BioShock

By: Anton Kratiuk | today, 12:08

Magicians: The Devil's Deal replaces firearms with stage-magic spells — a direct spiritual echo of BioShock's plasmid system.. Source: Source: XBOX

If the first trailer for Magicians: The Devil's Deal made you do a double-take and think of Rapture, that's no accident. Announced at the Xbox Games Showcase 2026, the game comes from Uppercut Games — a Canberra-based studio co-founded by Ed Orman and Andrew James, both veterans of Irrational Games who worked on the BioShock series. It launches in 2027 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S, and will be available day one on Xbox Game Pass.

The BioShock DNA

The premise puts you in the shoes of Jacob, a stage magician haunted by five supernatural shadows. To rid himself of them, he strikes a deal with the devil — and gains powers that look unmistakably like BioShock's plasmids: fireballs, space-warping spells, conjured cards, wands, and other theatrical tricks of the trade. The visual style leans hard into 1890s stage-magic aesthetics, which co-founder Ed Orman describes as "theatrical dark fantasy." The Focus Entertainment press release frames it as a shooter where magic entirely replaces firearms — a genre experiment that has tripped up developers before.

## The genre risk — and the Game Pass safety net The obvious comparison is Immortals of Aveum, EA's 2023 magic-shooter that split critics between 40 and 90 on Metacritic. Reviewers praised the combat feel but hammered a weak story and repetitive design. Uppercut's game looks more stylish and tonally distinct, but narrative-heavy first-person shooters remain a hard sell. What changes the calculus here is Game Pass. With over 30 million subscribers on Microsoft's service, day-one inclusion means players can try it without a $60 commitment — a buffer that Immortals of Aveum never had at full retail price. Uppercut, now around 50 staff and backed by a minority investment from Tencent since 2021, signed a publishing deal with Focus Entertainment in 2024. The studio calls Magicians the biggest project it has ever attempted. ## What's confirmed The 2027 window is the only firm date. No price has been announced for a standalone purchase. Age ratings (PEGI, ESRB) and any localization details are yet to be disclosed. For Game Pass subscribers, the ask is simple: wait and see.

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