Sometimes, you remember years for the games that happened in them. 2014 will always be the year of the remasters for me, for example, since that’s when Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition , Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD , the Final Fantasy X|X-2 HD Remaster , Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate HD , and The Last of Us Remastered were released. We remember things in different ways, and I wonder how we will think of 2016 in the years to come. Based on what we know now, I suspect this will be the Year of the Delay.
Delays are a rather common thing in the world of video games. Developers try their best to get a product out in time. Various circumstances appear. It doesn’t happen. We have to wait months, maybe even years, to finally get the game. Yet, in 2016 we keep hearing about these notable launches that aren’t happening. Things keep getting pushed back further and further, and it’s only going to damage companies’ reputations and keep consumers from committing to products.
Let’s go over all of the games that have experienced some sort of delay in 2016, shall we? You know, just to establish that this isn’t me being illogical. Delays within the same year include No Man’s Sky and Final Fantasy XV , which did or will arrive later than expected. That’s on top of Final Fantasy XV taking ten years to make. The Last Guardian is finally getting released after nine years and multiple delays. Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, Scalebound, Halo Wars 2, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Crackdown 3 , and Mass Effect Andromeda have all been pushed from this year to the next. It’s an epidemic. What was once an occasional nuisance has become an unfortunate constant.
And those are just the games that were lucky enough to get release windows after their delays. Some aren’t so fortunate. Remember Dead Island 2 ? The game that was supposed to be coming to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One? It doesn’t have a release date anymore. Neither does Batman: Return to Arkham , the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One remaster we were supposed to get this year. Frankly, 2016 has been a mess.
Which is only going to have a detrimental effect on the industry. I’ve only mentioned 12 of the delays we’ve heard about this year. It’s far from over. We could very well hear about more. A lack of transparency on the part of developers and publishers is causing these to pile up, with people left indignant because they don’t know why. Trust is going to be broken, because how can you be assured games will be released when you expect them? They keep getting pushed back months and sometimes years. Plus, when you keep hearing about all these troubled development cycles, you begin wondering about buying games at launch and even supporting the people making them. No one’s going to want to be the guinea pig.
To be frank, it looks like 2016 isn’t going to have a good legacy. There’s a chance it won’t be a year remembered for great games released during it. No, instead it almost seems like 2016 could be remembered here on out as the one where everything was delayed. That’s a bad thing. There’s still a chance things could work out if everything isn’t delayed further, arrives on time in 2017, and time lets us forget this unpleasantness. Worst case scenario, this year ends up being a tipping point and beginning of a trend that keeps us from trusting developers and publishers when it comes to launch windows.