14 DAY TRIAL // The beginning of 2015 should have been great for gamers, as several titles announced one or two years ago were to be launched during the January / February window.
Alas, since the early days of 2015, most of the important announcements were about the delay of a game that we had expected to arrive soon.
Even though some of these games have been postponed by just one week, judging by what’s happening in the last two weeks, it’s very clear that the beginning of 2015 is not good for gamers.
I can definitely understand that sometimes, not very often, developers delay a game because their programming computers accidentally caught fire over the New Year’s holiday or they’ve caught a nasty flu and weren’t able to work for a month.
I can also understand that in some situations developers thought they would be able to finish work on a certain date and due to unforeseen events they need extra time to finish polishing the game or fix some last minute bugs.
But I don’t remember a time when so many important games that should have been released around the same timeframe have been delayed. I agree that it’s better to delay a game to fix anything that needs fixing rather than come out with a broken game.
What happened in the last two weeks, though, is almost unbelievable. Almost each day since the beginning of the new year, I had to write an article about the delay of a game that was previously slated for a January/February release.
It has become a trend to delay a game
I thought that this unfortunate trend will end with the “big announcement” that Grand Theft Auto V for PC has been postponed, but it seems like other developers took the opportunity to announce the delay of their games as well.
“Now that GTA V has been delayed to March 24, we want to inform our fans that “[put any game here]” has a new release date.” I wanted to laugh at first, but since I’ve gotten at least 4 delay announcements per week this year my only thought was when is it going to end.
Dynasty Warriors 8 Empire, BladeStorm: Nightmare, Dragon Ball Xenoverse, The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 (it gets worse now), Grand Theft Auto 5, Pillars of Eternity (kind of), and Resident Evil Revelations 2.
These are just some of the titles delayed into later February or March. Pillar of Eternity never had a release date set by Obsidian, but the project was tentatively expected to be released in late December and then in early 2015.
Now that a release date has been unveiled (March 26), should we expect another announcement that the game will be postponed for another week or two? I sincerely hope not.
I imagine players usually complain when a developer rushes out a game because of the publisher’s pressure, but let’s not be at the opposite end and postpone games like there’s no tomorrow.
We still have two weeks left of January and I dare not think about what other games set to be released soon (Evolve, The Order 1886) might be delayed.
I believe developers have become too optimistic about their games roadmaps and have started to come up with release dates that are far from being objectively set. Perhaps publishers have something to do with that as well, because some of them, not all, want to cash in on a franchise as quickly as possible.
Excitement can disappear as quickly as it's gained
Even if you get people excited about a game that’s to be released in less than a year, you can lose them quite fast by delaying it. As I said earlier, this has happened so often in the last couple of years that every time I’m watching a new announcement trailer with a release date at the end, I always assume that it will be delayed by at least a month.
What’s even worse is that we, gamers, are now expecting every major title that gets a release date early on to be delayed by default. On top of that, we’re willing to forgive and forget because, why not, it’s just entertainment.
I, along with many-many other gamers, always think about a delay as a positive thing. If developers need more time to make their games better, then by all means they should take all the time they need.
I wouldn’t be able to think otherwise, but I don’t find it fair that developers are hyping customers so much with unrealistic release dates and all of a sudden delay their games. The whole excitement is gone and even if we think that it’s for the best, we’re still left with a bitter taste.
Postponing a game has already become a trend and I fear that it will be hard to get rid of it. Perhaps developers will eventually realize that every time they delay their games they lose a chunk of their fans/customers.
My only hope is that we won’t have to report on too many delay announcements in the next couple of months, though I’m pretty sure we’re not yet over with these delays in January.