Dispatch Celebrates Its First Anniversary on PS5 and PC With Storyboard and Commentary Modes
Exactly one year after its debut episode premiered on October 22, 2025, the episodic superhero workplace comedy Dispatch has reached a major milestone. California-based developer AdHoc Studio, founded by former Telltale Games directors and writers Nick Herman, Dennis Lenart, Pierre Shorette, and Michael Choung, confirmed today that more than 5 million players have clocked into the game across PlayStation 5, PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and Amazon Luna. As the team prepares to bring the adventure to iOS and Android before the end of 2026, it has launched a substantial First Anniversary update introducing two full behind-the-scenes game modes.
Free Anniversary Update for Digital Deluxe Edition Owners on PS5 and PC
Available to download right now, the anniversary patch adds both Commentary Mode and Storyboard Mode across every platform where the Deluxe Edition is sold. Players who already own the Digital Deluxe Edition of Dispatch on Steam or PlayStation 5 receive both playable modes automatically at no extra cost through a standard game update.
For those who own the base game, the Digital Deluxe Edition Upgrade is priced at $10.99 (and currently features a 20% anniversary discount on Steam). Alongside the new Storyboard and Commentary modes, the upgrade unlocks the digital art book and all four digital comic issues exploring the backstories of the Z-Team roster, adding plenty of replay value to one of the standout narrative releases in the PS5 PlayStation Store catalog over the past year.
Over 16 Hours of Choice-Driven Cast and Crew Commentary
Rather than layering a static audio file over a fixed walkthrough, AdHoc Studio engineered Commentary Mode to react directly to how you play. Accessible from the in-game Settings menu, the feature packs more than 16 hours of behind-the-scenes insights spanning all eight episodes of the first season.
Players can choose between two distinct audio tracks before jumping into an episode:
- The Cast Track: Features the voice actors behind the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN), including Aaron Paul (Robert Robertson / Mecha Man), Laura Bailey (Invisigal), Erin Yvette (Blonde Blazer), Travis Willingham, and Jeffrey Wright, sharing stories from the recording booth and breaking down their character dynamics.
- The Crew Track: Brings together the writers, directors, and designers at AdHoc Studio to discuss how the workplace comedy pacing, branching dialogue trees, and tactical hero-dispatching mechanics were assembled.
Crucially, the commentary tracks change dynamically based on the key gameplay choices you make. Taking a different narrative branch on a second playthrough unlocks specific anecdotes tied to those exact outcomes. While the commentary audio itself is recorded in English without dedicated commentary subtitles, the base game dialogue continues to display subtitles in your selected language while the track plays.
Mid-Scene Storyboard Mode Toggle and the 2027 Design Works Book
Launching alongside the audio tracks, Storyboard Mode lets you experience all eight episodes of Dispatch from start to finish exactly as they were first drawn. Enabling the option replaces the final 3D rendered scenes with the original storyboard animatics created before a single frame of 3D animation went into production.
Players can toggle Storyboard Mode on or off in the Settings menu mid-scene to compare the initial hand-drawn staging against the finished cinematic cut, and both Storyboard Mode and Commentary Mode can be run simultaneously for a complete production breakdown.
Beyond the in-game update, AdHoc Studio's official anniversary announcement outlined several physical collectibles and community events:
- Dispatch: Design Works Hardcover Book: Expanding its partnership with publisher Lost In Cult, AdHoc is producing a hardcover making-of book and collectible box built around hours of cast and developer interviews. Pre-orders open in late November 2026 ahead of a release on the 2027 game release calendar.
- Physical Deluxe Comics Set: All four Deluxe Edition comics are now available in print for the first time on the official AdHoc Studio store, featuring new interlocking covers by Art Director Derek Stratton that combine into a single battle scene.
- Live Concert in Los Angeles: On Thursday, December 3, 2026, AVALON Hollywood will host One Night (Shift) Only, a 21+ live concert featuring composer Andrew Arcadi, the SDN Company Band, THOT SQUAD, Bershy, Primer, Caroline Kingsbury, and Fartbarf.
My Perspective
As someone who loves replaying choice-heavy narrative games to see every hidden branch, having a developer and cast commentary track that actually adapts to the decisions you make is a rare treat. Hearing Aaron Paul, Laura Bailey, and the former Telltale directors react to the exact scene variation you unlocked makes a second run on PS5 feel genuinely fresh rather than a passive audio lecture. Pair that with the ability to flip into raw storyboard animatics mid-conversation, and you get an unusually warm, transparent look at how much expressive hand-drawn craft went into the Z-Team before the 3D cameras ever rolled.
Based on the outskirts of New York City, Chaya 'Chayane' spent five years studying software engineering in Montreal before returning to her home state. A Full-Stack developer and Deep Learning AI architecture researcher, she explores neural networks and algorithmic optimization while engineering data pipelines for Retrocharting and Gamescharting alongside Grimtag. A gamer for over 20 years and an avid collector of Nintendo history and The Legend of Zelda, she explored World of Warcraft's Azeroth before bringing her deep technical background to video game analysis.
