Australian studio Beethoven & Dinosaur has confirmed its long-awaited musical narrative game Mixtape will officially launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC on 7 May.
The game has been in development for several years now, with impressive showings across major showcases, including at SXSW Sydney, offering lush first looks at a moving, music-infused game that charts the agonies of growing up and growing apart from your friends.
Mixtape launches in May – quick links
Drawing on the music of the 80s and 90s
Beethoven & Dinosaur has previously shared that Mixtape is a music-backed narrative game about coming of age in a world that seems packed with magic and possibility. The game follows three friends on their last night of high school as they play through a ‘mixtape of memories, set to the soundtrack of a generation’.
It’s distinctly inspired by the 80s and 90s, and specifically rock and alternative music from the era. Tunes from Joy Division, Devo, Smashing Pumpkins, Iggy Pop, Lush, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Silverchair (for some Australian representation) play out as you advance the story, one emotional beat at a time.
ScreenHub was recently able to get hands-on with Mixtape and came away impressed by its lush, emotionally-charged narrative, and how music evokes a nostalgia for the era, even for players who won’t have experienced it for themselves.
Our first look at Mixtape
This game follows the footsteps of Rockford, a teenager who dreams of being a Music Supervisor – someone who determines the soundtracks for popular media. Her dreams shape your adventure, as Rockford shares her ambitions with her friends and demonstrates her prowess by soundtracking a series of moving vignettes.
You begin the game on a skateboard rolling down a hill, wind in your hair and music playing, the beat matching each swish of your wheels. You’re accompanied by Slater and Cassandra, two of Rockford’s fierce friends, who support her dreams while reaching for their own. They all understand their summer will end eventually and that their paths will diverge – so why not kick back and enjoy the ride while it lasts?
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Mixtape is a fairytale about growing up. It’s about the sense of freedom you have when you first enter the adult world, and the idea that you can do anything, be anything, create anything.
It’s not about the modern reality of economic downturn and job losses – and in that sense, it’s a good reminder of how much hope many of us carried in this transition. Some may have lost that hope, while others are struggling to hold onto it. Mixtape celebrates this hope in all its many forms.
When Mixtape launches in May, we expect those searching for games with a bright-eyed sense of hope, with encouragement for a better future, will find something to love here. Mixtape has proved entirely promising in its first looks, and we’re keen to get hands-on for more.
Also on ScreenHub: Beethoven & Dinosaur’s Mixtape stole the show at SXSW Sydney 2025
To play Mixtape is to be transported – to an entirely different era, a different country, a different childhood. But even in its difference, it forms an instant connection, by its veneration of music. In this game, you follow a group of teenage friends on their last night together, trying to make the most of their friendship before life and circumstances pull them apart.
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