Deathloop is latest victim of coronavirus-related gaming delays

By Jon Silman August 19, 2020

Arkane Studios is delaying Deathloop, the next game from the developers of Prey and Dishonored, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The company tweeted that the pandemic was causing a lot of disruption to the workflow required to complete the game on time.

“We’ve made the decision to move the launch date of Deathloop to Q2 2021,” Arkane said. “Our ambition for Deathloop is to deliver a signature Arkane game that takes you to never-before-seen-places in a stylish new world.”

Deathloop was announced at E3 2019 and follows protagonist Colt as he tries to figure out a time loop mystery and kill the eight villains responsible for it using his supernatural abilities. He also takes on a rival assassin named Julianna, who can be played by someone else in online mode. Deathloop was originally scheduled for a fourth-quarter release this year.

Arkane said the “health and safety” of everyone at the company is a top priority.

“As we’ve adjusted to work-from-home, we found that delivering this new and exciting experience, at the polish and level that defines both an Arkane game and a true next-gen experience, is taking longer than normal,” Arkane said. “This extra time will allow our team to bring Deathloop‘s world to life with as much character and fun as you’ve come to expect from our team.”

The game was going to be a timed console exclusive on both the PlayStation 4 and 5.

“While we know this is the right decision for Deathloop, we share your disappointment, and apologize for making you wait any longer,” Arkane said. “Thank you for your support and excitement. Your positive feedback has helped us as we continue to work from the confines of our homes. We can’t wait to share more details about Deathloop with you, so keep your eyes open for our next update, coming soon.”

Deathloop is the latest in a series of games that have been delayed due to the ongoing pandemic. Halo Infinite, which was supposed to be a launch title for the Xbox Series X, was also delayed. The Last of Us II was delayed a few months before being released on June 19, and Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed numerous times.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Gaming

PS5 is the latest gaming hardware to get a price hike

playstation 5 price increase

Sony announced that it is increasing the price of the PlayStation 5 at retail in select markets due to inflation and currency trends. Notably, the price in the U.S. will not be affected.

"The global economic environment is a challenge that many of you around the world are no doubt experiencing," says PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan in a statement on the PlayStation Blog. "We’re seeing high global inflation rates, as well as adverse currency trends, impacting consumers and creating pressure on many industries."

Gaming

The next Assassin’s Creed game reportedly delayed to spring 2023

Main character of Assassin's Creed: Liberation on building.

Ubisoft on Thursday announced that it delayed "a smaller unannounced premium game" to next year along with Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. It turns out that the premium game in question is Assassin's Creed Rift, and it has been delayed to spring 2023, Bloomberg confirmed on Friday.

An unnamed source familiar with Ubisoft's plans told Bloomberg's Jason Schreier that the game publisher's office in Bordeaux, France, which is heading the project, asked for more time to develop and polish Assassin's Creed Rift because it was falling behind in terms of the development schedule. The spring 2023 release window means that it could come out anywhere between March and June of next year. Ubisoft said in a press release that it would release the game in fiscal year 2023-24.

Gaming

Switch Online’s latest retro games are better than you think

Nintendo added

On May 26, Nintendo announced that it was adding Congo's Caper, Rival Turf!, and Pinball to the NES/SNES library on Nintendo Switch Online. The fan reaction was similar to the response after every one of these announcements: Overwhelming negativity.
On Twitter, most of the reactions to this announcement are complaining about this new lineup of games, begging for Super Mario RPG and other missing classic titles to be added, and claiming that Nintendo is lazy and not trying with these new additions. When classic titles like Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars don't come to the service in the update, any additions are immediately derided. While there are certainly areas of Nintendo's approach to Nintendo Switch Online worth criticizing, this backlash raises an important question: Do people really want classic games preserved or just the ones they've heard of?
NES & Super NES - May 2022 Game Updates - Nintendo Switch Online
Preserving Pinball
Nowadays in gaming discourse, players are quick to judge and immensely deride something if they're displeased with one aspect of it. We've routinely seen that with Switch Online updates, but the knee-jerk reactions overlook some of the critical preservation the service is doing.
Pinball, for example, might seem like an outdated game at this point, but it was the first commercially released game from the partnership between Kirby developer HAL Laboratory and Nintendo. Its release helped cement HAL Laboratory's relationship with Nintendo and former Nintendo president Satoru Iwata's reputation.
"Looking back, the games that we developed in those days all involved big software ideas where the client was quite sure how to pull it off," Iwata recalled about Pinball's development and the early days of the Nintendo partnership in a writing featured in the Ask Iwata book. "Once we made something of a name for ourselves, we were lauded for our technical abilities, which led to a steady stream of work." In an interview with Used Game Magazine, Iwata would even state that HAL used the NES Pinball game's engine for the popular Pokemon Pinball games.
Not too shabby for a game that's being dragged as a weak Nintendo Switch Online addition.

Pinball, Congo's Caper, and Rival Turf! might not be all-time classics, but they're enjoyable games that deserve to be preserved and remembered just as much as Super Mario World or The Legend of Zelda. While Pinball and Rival Turf! were featured on previous iterations of Virtual Console, it's also worth noting that Congo's Caper has never been re-released before now. The same goes for other previously derided Nintendo Switch Online additions like The Immortal, Fire 'n Ice, Jelly Boy, Claymates, Bombuzal, and Nightshade.
As fans get angry at Nintendo for not featuring more notable games in these Nintendo Switch Online updates, the good that comes with preserving some of these NES and SNES games is often completely ignored. The reality is that it's already put most of the most important NES and SNES games on this subscription service, especially the former. It's inevitable that Nintendo would spotlight some of these lesser-known games on the service now that just a few stragglers remain.
Hate the player, not the games
While some of the discourse surrounding additions to Nintendo Switch Online is misguided, Nintendo is not free from blame. I've complained about issues with its subscription service and its library in the past, and see how its current approach to re-releasing classics is flawed in the wake of the Wii, 3DS, and Wii U's Virtual Console. NES and SNES library updates aren't on a consistent schedule, so it's frustrating when a new batch of games is small and made up of obscure titles. Meanwhile, some of the subscription's games have notable technical issues that need to be resolved post-release.