Have they delayed a game that you were looking forward to? Bad. But worse would be if they had taken it out and it wasn’t what you expected, don’t you think? Let’s remember, because we have many titles that could have already improved with a delay of a few months. Or years.
“Apostponed game will end up being good , while an accelerated game will be bad forever .” You’ve probably read this Shigeru Miyamoto quote a ton of times by now, but right now more than ever, his words are worth remembering. This week, we had to deliver such annoying news as that Final Fantasy VII Remake is delayed a month , that Marvel’s Avengers is going to fall and as if that were not enough, the highly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 is also delayed . And all this, without even leaving the triple A frame.
Okay, here we are all players and we understand each other: it is likely that in the last few days you have been disappointed. They may have ruined a few days off, or maybe you have to contact the store to see what happens with the reservation of that game that you wait so long. You may even have to count the bills you spend more carefully in the coming weeks and months.
But even with all of this in mind, surely we can all agree that some games that did (more or less) meet their release dates could have turned out much better if they had been delayed. There are many possible reasons: some were missing important features, others were weighed down by bugs, and there are also some that simply drowned out on the market. Below these lines, we collect some of the games that, in our opinion, should have remained in the oven for a little longer, no matter how heavy it was.
Titanfall 2
Typically, the convenience of delays comes with bugs, optimization problems, and the like. Titanfall 2 didn’t have that problem – the game won over the press and fans alike, but faced severe market congestion . We believe that the decision to launch the fair game between two best-selling FPS like Battlefield 1 and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was not the most successful at all. Perhaps, if it had been published at a better time and had garnered more sales , today we would not have to worry so much about Titanfall 3.
Diablo III
Almost all Blizzard games face the same launch issue – very long queues, connection issues, and the like. If you lived through the recent WoW Classic case, you will remember that there were several previous technical tests and that extra servers were added quickly. But Diablo III did not suffer the same fate. It was launched when it was ready, without further experimentation, it had a very complicated start-up and it took about a month for those responsible to solve them. Did you ask for a vacation to play out? Sorry, friend.
No Man’s Sky
We would say that No Man’s Sky faced more expectations generated by its managers than its own technical problems. Hello Games has signed a whole redemption arc since then, but perhaps it would have fared better out of the box if it had been released as early access at a reduced price, and got to where it is right now as other content and features were added. Actually, this is true for many other games. Do you think Sea of Thieves would have liked something like that?
Monster Hunter: World (PC)
The first PC Monster Hunter to reach the West had huge expectations behind it, and the fact that it arrived months after its release on consoles only increased that interest. But knowing how it arrived, we could almost expect more. Not even the best graphics could achieve good stable FPS rates, some configuration options were (and still are) broken, and how can we forget about the side stripes when playing with a controller, disconnections , the constant “3DChads is now playing Monster Hunter: World “or the error that could erase the game completely just when you reached the final boss … and that it returned with the Iceborne expansion.
Fallout 76
That an Elder Scrolls or a Fallout goes on sale in the midst of bug indigestion is nothing new. It shouldn’t be like that, but we almost expect it in advance. But the case of Fallout 76 is particular because, in addition to its constant crashes and disconnections, it also gave the feeling of being done in a hurry . Where are the humans? Why are there no raids? Many key features were missing, and some of those present were problematic. Not even the collector’s edition lived up to expectations. It is better to do these things “slowly and with good handwriting”, of course.
Destiny 2
It took more than a year of constant updates and three DLCs to bring the original Destiny to the level of depth that players expected from it. Following the trailers for The Taken King and the Iron Lords outline, we all expected Destiny 2 to be released as a “more and better” , but when it came out we could quickly see that it was still somewhat green. We were missing a lot of weapons, maps, and features from the original , such as round score, private matches, and more. Perhaps with one more year of work and more possibilities, I would have come back much faster.
Mass Effect: Andromeda
I’d say Mass Effect: Andromeda wasn’t a bad game at all. It is true that it was not up to the standards of previous BioWare works, but that does not automatically make it a waste, of course. And it could have gone down in history as a fair or remarkably low game had it not been for a few bugs that made it a laughingstock in the industry in 2017. It needed… calibrations. Now you understand me. Those absurd and grotesque animations could be fixed with a few months of extra work, but we also sent the same message to Assassin’s Creed: Unity and the famous misshapen bug .
Street fighter v
It seems that Capcom had a special interest in bringing Street Fighter V to stores on the date it was released, but meeting that goal was very expensive for the game’s content. Not that major extras were lacking like in Destiny 2, or that it seemed rushed like Fallout 76 – the game was fine, just that it seemed incomplete . The community harshly criticized the lack of campaign and arcade modes , although they were somewhat more complementary. Of course, they both ended up arriving eventually. Maybe the initial reception would have been a lot better if SFV had all of that launch content.
Final Fantasy XV
Delaying Final Fantasy XV are big words, because some have been waiting for it since it was Versus XIII, and if you are among them it is likely that you have more than one gray in your hair. But after so many years of waiting , it did not feel very good to know that Square Enix was bringing to stores a product that could hardly be fully understood without its corresponding DLC. It will be for time, Nomura! And the worst thing is that this custom has also extended to Kingdom Hearts III, another title that has pissed off its followers on a narrative level.
Radical Heights
We’re halfway between seriousness and humor with this one. Cliff Bleszinski, we get you: Lawbreakers didn’t come out in a good time, it didn’t perform as expected and at the end of the day, this is a job and you have to eat from it. We don’t blame you for betting on a genre like battle royale at the time, we probably would have done the same. But you can’t play a quick game and expect it to print tickets on its own, sure. That does not work like that. And now we wonder, what if Radical Heights had had more time and budget ? Would we have been pleasantly surprised? Well maybe not, but who knows.
