Imagine this: You鈥檝e been waiting for a video game patiently. It has been in development for years. You鈥檝e read every article. You鈥檝e watched every gameplay video, interview and trailer. Then, you wake up one morning and discover the worst — the game has been delayed for months.
On March 1, Naughty Dog announced on the that 鈥淯ncharted 4: A Thief鈥檚 End鈥� is getting delayed for the third time to May 10, 2016. It all began when the lead writer for the previous 鈥淯ncharted鈥� games, , left to work on a new "Star Wars" title at Visceral Games.
After this departure, the following months were filled with more and more employees leaving, including Game Director Justin Richmond. 鈥淯ncharted 4鈥� was left stranded. Many assumed that the turmoil within the company would leave 鈥淯ncharted鈥� in a bad place, but in June 2015, Nolan North, the voice actor of 鈥淯ncharted鈥濃�檚 hero, Nathan Drake, commented that after Hennig鈥檚 departure, Naughty Dog threw out the past of work on the game. Due to all of the departures, 鈥淯ncharted 4鈥� was delayed from a release date to , then to , 2016, and now finally to May 10, 2016.
As video games have started being teased earlier and earlier and they become harder to make, delays have become a pretty normal cycle for any game. Some developers seem to announce a date only to excite people and then delay the game later. One of the best examples of this is 鈥淏atman: Arkham Knight." 鈥淎rkham Knight鈥� was originally announced as a game before being pushed all the way back to and then delayed again to , 2015. It is hard to believe that Rocksteady, the developer of the game, truly thought that they would be able to release the game in October or November of 2014 when they pushed the release back seven to eight months. Was it necessary to give a release date? If so, why not play it safe and set the date for 2015?
A further issue is the fact that many developers simply announce their games too early. The definitive example of this is 鈥淭he Last Guardian." "The Last Guardian鈥�" was at E3 in 2009 with a full trailer but was practically unheard from after the trailer, leading many to assume it was cancelled. After six years, Sony and Team Ico finally re-announced "The Last Guardian" again at E3 in 2015 with a vague release date of 鈥�2016.鈥�
What some have said is the correct way to announce a game is a method that Bethesda employed recently with 鈥淔allout 4." Although there were rumors for years about the game, there was no official word from Bethesda until . Five months later, consumers were playing the game. Not only did the game meet the release date, but it was and was the of 2015 while only being on the market for two months of the year.
This proves that there do not need to be years of promotion in order for a game to do well. It can only be hoped that more developers will come to use this model. This would cut down on the over-hyping of games and would excite fans due to the fact that they will not have to wait years to be able to actually play the game. Although it is better that a game like 鈥淯ncharted 4鈥� is delayed in order to have more time to create a polished product, the majority of developers should stop being overzealous with how early they announce games and how soon they hope to release them — we in the video game community will all be better for it.