Bethesda recently announced that the eagerly anticipated sci-fi RPG Starfield won’t be released this year. The company has also delayed Redfall in order to polish both titles further. At the moment, we have no idea when the light of day will come on for either match.
Delays have become more common in the video game industry lately due to the global pandemic that is disrupting supply chains and forcing many developers to adjust to working from home. Major titles like Breath of the Wild 2 and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League are now slated for 2023. God of War: Ragnarok is due this year, but given the circumstances, it’s entirely possible that it will face a second delay and not release in 2022. This is the state of the world.
Although I’m not as demanding of a Starfield as some of my friends and colleagues, the delay was the last straw for me. After many announced delays over the past two years, I’ve reached the point where I no longer trust any proposed release date. I literally laughed out loud when I saw that the new version of Dead Space will be released on January 27, 2023. What reason do I think this game will meet its release date? or any game?
Maybe I’m hyperbolic, or too cynical. I’m sure the vast majority of titles will be released when desired. In general, independent titles have not experienced significant delays during the pandemic. This is likely in part because indie developers were largely used to working from home or on remote teams before global shutdowns. But in terms of games with big budgets, things look pretty bleak. Yes, God of War: Ragnarok is slated for 2022, but like I said, I see no reason to think it’s actually coming out this year.
In short, I have stopped promoting upcoming games. And maybe you should too.
Delay makes new keyboards less tempting
These latest delays are an issue with the two major current-generation platforms: the PS5 and Xbox Series X. People have been keeping an eye on PS5 restocks and Xbox Series X restocks since their launch in late 2020. But given the lack of the former – party titles coming to every platform This year, not to mention the glut of cross-platform titles on both current and last-generation platforms, there’s no compelling reason to want any. I realize FOMO is a real thing, but people don’t miss a lot. I’ve been playing PS5 for over a year now and I’m still waiting until I feel like a ‘next-gen’ console.
The Xbox Series X is in worse shape, and not just because Starfield and Redfall have gone MIA. Halo Infinite – a title that was late in itself – failed to meet expectations. Although updates are coming in Halo Infinite Season 2, the game currently looks incomplete due to the lack of key features such as co-op mode.
Aside from the plethora of older titles available on Game Pass, there’s not much reason to get an Xbox Series X, especially if you want a current first-gen exclusive. Sure, Forza Motorsporrt 8 is supposed to launch this year, but the racing game won’t move consoles. Even if the PS5 first-party output for 2022 is minimal, it still has a decent amount of exclusives (even if most of it is on PS4). The Xbox Series X/S doesn’t have that luxury, though Microsoft gets Bethesda and Activision Blizzard.
I won’t be excited for the next games
One of the gaming industry’s most important issues is the over-reliance on noise. Companies bombard us with tons of trailers, developer memos, blog posts and more to get excited about any title they want us to buy. Gamers are feeding the hype via social media sites like Twitter and YouTube. It’s getting to a point where some titles just can’t live up to the hype created. See Watch Dogs, Anthem, Duke Nukem Forever, Aliens Colonial Marines, and Cyberpunk 2077 for examples.
Delay makes matters worse. On the other hand, the longer the game is released, the higher the unrealistic expectations. Conversely, any noise generated by the game can fade if it takes too long to release – see The Last Guardian. In the case of Starfield, you may encounter the previous scenario and may not live up to what people expect.
So what do we do? No matter how hard it is, we’d better stop feeding the proverbial hype machine. Even if you’re looking forward to Starfield, God of War: Ragnarok, or any other blockbuster title, you can probably temper your enthusiasm until the game is actually in stores. I was going to say wait for the game to go gold, but as we saw with Cyberpunk 2077, even that doesn’t guarantee a closed release date or a finished game. Forgive the sarcasm, but at this point I’d suggest limiting your noise until the game is either in your hands or in your console’s SSD storage.
Starfield, Redfall, Final Fantasy XVI, and all the other big games will be on the horizon one day. This may not be the time we expect, but we’ll see them eventually. To that end, I will keep a list of games that I look forward to and then forget about the said list and occupy myself with other hobbies. When the titles I want to play come out, I can be pleasantly surprised rather than frustrated that the game took so long to release.
The current state of world affairs is likely to persist for the foreseeable future, meaning that we can likely expect further delays. So the best thing you can do is not believe in any official release dates. If you do, you may be setting yourself up for disappointment. Follow my progress and stop getting bogged down in the upcoming matches.
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