One of the most disappointing things that can happen to a long-anticipated game is a cancelation, but indefinite delays are a close second. Though games in development hell -- the limbo where games are never released but never canceled -- can sometimes manage to escape and still release, most indefinitely delayed games never see the light of day.
Games can enter development hell for a myriad of reasons. Everything from a change in developers to a studio getting busy with other projects can lead to games getting put on the backburner. With the recent news that Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines II will be delayed until beyond 2021, let's look at the circumstances surrounding its indefinite delay and four other promising games that met a similar terrible fate.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is one of the most underrated RPGs of all time. The game has a huge cult following and is absolutely worth playing for fans of RPGs like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and the original Deus Ex. The l0ng-anticipated sequel has been in development since 2015, but publisher Paradox Interactive recently announced that the game's development team, Hardsuit Labs, was released from the project.
Bloodlines II had a lot of hype leading up to the game's release, including an entire Alternate Reality Game featuring a fake vampire dating app. The original Bloodlines earned it's cult classic status due to the wide number of choices that let players shape their own story. The RPG mechanics, tone and narrative are also heavy points of praise that will hopefully be carried over when and if Bloodlines II releases.
The Halo series is looking to have a return to form with Halo Infinite. Tons of features from previous games, such as split-screen multiplayer, are set to return due to fan requests. However, Halo Infinite is one of many games affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the game being delayed until "late 2021," possibly in the spring. There's been a lot of troubling news surrounding the delay that has given Halo fans a lot to be concerned about.
Around the time that the game was delayed, reports began circling that significant portions of the game were outsourced to third-party developers. Microsoft also announced that the previously planned beta for the game was probably going to be canceled, mainly due to the global pandemic. The trailers and pre-release footage that has been shown for Infinite also received poor feedback from fans, making the game's five-year development time and continuous delays all the more concerning.
Far Cry 6 is another game affected by the pandemic, though that seems to be the only reason for its lack of a release date. The next installment in Ubisoft's long-running open-world FPS series takes place on a fictional island known as Yara, which has been described as the "largest Far Cry playground to date." A trailer that featured Breaking Bad and The Mandalorian actor Giancarlo Esposito serving as the voice actor for the main antagonist built up tons of hype for the title.
Far Cry 6 has an estimated release date of sometime before September 2021; however, this was only mentioned during a recent earnings call, and no definite day has been officially confirmed. Given Far Cry 6's massive scale and increased production levels, it wasn't much of a surprise that the game was delayed during a global pandemic.
Another Ubisoft title that's seen significant delays is a remake of the platforming hit Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. The last Prince of Persia game was released almost thirteen years ago, which may be why seeing the next entry in the beloved series get delayed has been such a blow to fans. The Sands of Time remake was delayed once before and was given a January 2021 release date. There was no official release date given when the game received its second delay.
The first delay was clearly attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this most recent delay seems to be more about the quality that the development team wants to achieve. From their statement in the delay announcement, it seems as though the game's current state was not what they wanted this remake to be.
The story surrounding Dying Light 2's development is an incredibly unfortunate one for fans of the original zombie-survival parkour game. Key developers and staff members have left Techland, the game's independent development team. There have been two separate reports that Dying Light 2's development was not going well, though Techland has denied these claims.
One of the more recent reports claims that several anonymous Techland employees have spoken out about mismanagement from CEO Pawel Marchewka. An earlier report by PolskiGameDev, which Techland's PR manager quickly refuted, described Dying Light 2's development as being directionless and mismanaged. The validity of these reports is certainly still up in the air, but what is certain is that Dying Light 2 has had its release time delayed indefinitely since January of 2020.
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