Games go through a lot. They go on hold, have their release date delayed or simply
get cancelled. With the recent delays of highly anticipated games, a simple question might have come across your mind: “Why?"
One of the biggest let down of the week for many of you is probably the news of "Zelda U” getting
postponed for 2017. Initially announced in 2013 as under development for Nintendo’s latest home console, the news got many early adopters of the Wii’s successor excited and hopeful for a console with a thin lineup of games and poor third-party support. Console sales haven’t been flattering either and the WiiU has since been kept afloat almost solely by first-party titles. "Just wait till the new
Zelda gets released and the Wii U will be the must-buy console", was what on the hearts of many. The 2014
E3 footage of the game sure seemed to lean towards this thought and with a for a 2015 release announcement it rekindled the
Zelda passion in many gamers. However in 2015 the game’s release got delayed to 2016 and still this week it got delayed once more to 2017, this time for a dual release for both Wii U and the NX. This is strongly reminiscent of the simultaneous release of
Twilight Princess for the GameCube and Wii which effectively marked the end of the GCN. This release pattern feels almost like a heartfelt farewell gift to the dedicated supporters of an ailing console.
In such cases, one can’t help but be reminded of Shigeru Miyamoto’s famous quote:
A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever.
Following this mantra,
Assassin’s Creed: Unity is an example no developer/publisher wants to follow. Looking unashamedly rushed and bug-laden on release, the game is one of the most recent examples that can justify the increasing number of delayed games. Video game developers and especially publishers are getting more cautious and aim to deliver a more complete video game experience.
Bloodborne’s release was pushed to make way for one of the
best entries of the series. Delay justified!
Duke Nukem Forever was released after being 15 years in development. Delay justified? Hmmm… More recently, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst has been
delayed for the second time this year. Delay justified? Remains to be seen...
In other news,
Bandai Namco’s follow-up to
Street Fighter X Tekken is
currently in development hell. Six years after being announced, the game has been put on hold. But this time, the reason is different than other game's delay reasons. As
Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada explained in a
GameSpot interview “you have
Street Fighter V that was just released and a lot of people are playing that fervently. We have a large crowd out there that is waiting for
Tekken 7. So, we don’t want to split these communities. So, the window that is a good window to release
Tekken X Street Fighter is something that has become much more difficult." In this case, timing is conflicting which is an interesting and understandable reason for delaying a game.
___________________________
Games go through a lot. But so do we! We get hyped for a game's release but only to learn that it will be delayed? Is it a marketing misstep or are we getting too greedy? Games are delayed for numerous reasons and most often it’s out of our hands, and usually for the best.
What’s your experience with delayed/cancelled games and how did you cope with it? And was the delay justified?
