jason saw we were all excited for possible Starfield this year and
*breaks through door of hopes and dreams*
SIKE, YOU THOUGHT
*breaks through door of hopes and dreams*
SIKE, YOU THOUGHT
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In 2021, assume that no release dates or windows are certain
- Thread starter jschreier
- Start date
Honestly, the only game I'm confident is making 2021, is Halo Infinite - and that's just because 343 themselves have said the game is basically in the polishing phase as of over a month ago, and because I suspect Microsoft already built-in a huge time cushion with the year delay, because they want it to be a fall game.
Everything else is a wildcard.
Everything else is a wildcard.
I can see halo mp coming out before the campaign. Can't see Microsoft just missing the anniversary. COD is probably the only certain thing.
I think games dated for June 2021 are *pretty* safe. Anything beyond that is a collective shrug. I have plenty to play regardless and indies are always releasing. I can wait a year for God of War 2.
The secret is that everyone has a backlog.
Maybe not in the sense of games you already bought, but there's guaranteed a ton of games already out there you would love if you played them.
The biggest AAA stuff has the most marketing and as such sucks up a lot of the oxygen in the room but even when I had nothing else going on but games going on a couple of years ago I realized it's not really possible for one person to keep up with everything good.
Maybe! If it was originally supposed to be, like, a Q1/H1 release, it could be delayed and still make it out in 2021.
But Sony's never really been one to rush out games for the holiday season. They seem to usually prefer leaving that for third parties. But all bets are off this year. I think if it's ready, they'll release it. But that's a big if.
This is good advice, though tbh I was surprised at how much stuff ended up making 2020. If you had told me in April that we'd be getting something like Age of Calamity and like five different marquee first-party Sony titles (TLOU Part 2, Ghosts, Miles Morales, Demon's Souls, Sackboy's Big Adventure) I wouldn't have believed you but they made the year end. I won't really care if more stuff gets delayed this year given I have a huge backlog but the game industry has been less affected than I expected so far, but maybe my expectations were just really low given how dire the world seemed.
Basically everything Sony released in 2020 were at the tail of their dev cycle.
A game that's five years in development, going remote two months before it's out isn't going to drastically change its production.
A game that's launching in 18 months though? Yeah that remote work will affect it. Sony lucked out that many of their games were wrapping up development when they were. I'm assuming most of their planned 2021/2022 releases will end up getting delayed though.
The polishing phase is including QA I think, and it's hit hard by Covid and a game like Halo Infinite likely requires a huge QA team, so I wouldn't take in polishing phase as a nearly done thing, but more like 1 last massive hurdle.
I'm getting Resident Evil: Village so i'm good.
Also:
- Returnal
- Ratchet & Clank
- Mass Effect Trilogy
- Deathloop
- FF7 Remake: Integrade
- Necromunda
- Little Devil inside
- Kena
- Far Cry 6 should be released sometime over the next months.
So there's enough for me at least.
But my backlog is big enough to sustain me for more than one year. If that would be needed.
Also:
- Returnal
- Ratchet & Clank
- Mass Effect Trilogy
- Deathloop
- FF7 Remake: Integrade
- Necromunda
- Little Devil inside
- Kena
- Far Cry 6 should be released sometime over the next months.
So there's enough for me at least.
But my backlog is big enough to sustain me for more than one year. If that would be needed.
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Polishing phase of Cyberpunk was happening since the beginning of 2020 according to CDPR, and we all know how that ended, so I wouldn't be confident even about Halo.
In CP2077's case we can more or less conclude that was pretty much bollocks, based on how late it was reported they REALLY started development, and how the final release was straight up missing things. And CP2077's main problem seems to have been promising it for consoles that couldn't run it, then spending a ton of time trying to make that... not the case.
That's not to minimize problems for Halo - polishing is not some minor part of the process - but even the developer comments on the game and it's current state, reflect a product that is in the home stretch. And like I said, I suspect there was a certain cushion of time built into that one year delay, because Microsoft want it to be a fall release anyway
Yeah this is definitely going to be a backlog year I feel, the lack of firm dates in anything past the next couple of months seems telling in the circumstances
I agree with you and that's exactly my point: you can never believe everything the developers of delayed games say: they'll never tell you "we are having trouble with gameplay or optimization and the game isn't actually content complete." They'll always claim that the game is basically done but they just need to do some polishing and tweaks, whether or not it's true.
Halo is a cross gen open-world title, just like Cyberpunk, and a multiplayer one, which presents its own challenges. It'll have the same problem of having to be optimized for a very weak console (Xbox One OG) while looking good enough. It's a very difficult task. I still think Halo will release this year, but I'm not as confident as you are.
Many great games will come out this year, despite nothing being certain. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Resident Evil VIII, Returnal, Deathloop - pretty sure they are all coming out this year, so I don't see how it is a "backlog year".
Ha- implying i beat it the first time!!!
...I really really should go back and beat it...
There's enough to play, so no problem. But we have been in this situation for over a year now, you would assume that studios have an idea about how covid impacts productivity? And adjust release dates?
Also curious why/how covid delays stuff. This might sound like a very dumb question, but in my working environment, productivity has gone up, not down. Is game development more dependent on live interaction? Or is it harder to force people to crunch/overtime when they WFH? I just assumed that game developers would some of the businesses that would adjust to WFH the easiest.
Also curious why/how covid delays stuff. This might sound like a very dumb question, but in my working environment, productivity has gone up, not down. Is game development more dependent on live interaction? Or is it harder to force people to crunch/overtime when they WFH? I just assumed that game developers would some of the businesses that would adjust to WFH the easiest.
I'm aware. If he - or other journalists or 'insiders' - don't like it when people take what they say and run with it (like happened yday witch Schrier's tweet about botw2 etc that he then walked back), then they could VERY EASILY put a caveat that something is conjecture; how hard is this shit?
journalist or insider says something ambiguous knowing full well that people will take it as a hint: people take it as a hint
journalist or insider: oh my GOD, dont make a MAGAZINE ARTICLE out of it. Also...*draws down full wisdom from the gods*...nothing is certain.
no shit. NOTHING is? In THIS climate?
Who coulda known. Hence my comment: cheers magic 8 ball that we need
Deep inside i'm hoping that an indie studio is more capable at working from home and that they're able to stay somewhat on time.
Also the game is supposed to release during summer so a few weeks or even 2-3 months of delay wouldn't kick the game out to 2022.
But you're right. I should've just kept my mouth shut about them.
You seem upset.
By the way, Schreier and other journalists usually do note that things are subject to change and moreso than usual due to covid, and that generally just leads to posters with inexplicable axes to grind saying "oh, these so-called 'insiders' are just guessing"
An indie studio is also sensitive to problems, I think. If in a team of four people one has a dependent relative and another has psychological problems due to covid, that is half the team.
You monster
it will be okay though because I don't have a ps5 yet😬😬
One complaint I've heard is they often find themselves having to download massive build changes with less than sufficient internet. In cases like that, there's no better way around it.