Gloomwood Publisher Avoids Immersive Sim Tag [Confirmed]

New Blood Interactive CEO Dave Oshry officially explained during an in-depth February 2026 developer interview that marketing the retro-styled stealth thriller Gloomwood as an immersive sim creates unnecessary commercial friction, preferring traditional role-playing game classifications instead. According to verified reports from Rock Paper Shotgun, Oshry pointed out historical genre touchstones like System Shock and Deus Ex, noting that general audiences and mainstream buyers naturally gravitated toward calling them RPGs rather than getting bogged down in pedantic, gatekeeping genre definitions. The publisher's pragmatic stance highlights a critical marketing challenge facing indie studios who build complex, systems-driven PC games in an era dominated by rigid storefront tags and algorithm-driven discovery tools. By embracing familiar nomenclature, New Blood successfully aims to attract wider player bases without sacrificing the deep emergent mechanics, multifaceted Victorian level design, and intricate shadow-based stealth routing that define Gloomwood's definitive gameplay identity. Furthermore, players seeking deeper gameplay mechanics can review our guide on [Best JRPG Progression Systems Ranked: Top Builds [Full Guide]](/news/best-jrpg-progression-systems-ranked) to understand classic progression structures across major titles.