Turtle Rock Studios’ Evolve won’t be making its October 21 release date, as 2K Games parent company Take-Two Interactive confirmed in its latest earnings call. The game is now set to arrive on February 10, 2015. It’s the latest in a recent spate of delays that include such high-profile holiday titles as Battlefield: Hardline and Dragon Age: Inquisition.
The date shift opens up a hole in the holiday release schedule, with Fantasia: Music Evolved, Samurai Warriors 4, and Civilization: Beyond Earth (another 2K title) the remaining major releases for that week. All three should find an audience, but none of them lean into the AAA mainstream appeal of a shooter like Evolve.
The extra time should give Turtle Rock the time it needs to polish things off and get the game right. 2K has certainly never shied away from delaying unreleased titles in the name of getting them right. BioShock Infinite was the target of multiple delays leading up to its March 2013 release, and that’s only the most recent example. Evolve‘s February 10 launch keeps it inside of Take-Two’s current fiscal year, an important bit of data if you’re an investor.
2K Games still has a robust fall ahead, with Beyond Earth, NBA 2K15, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, WWE 2K15, and the recently announced iOS port of BioShock all due to arrive before 2015 kicks off. Take-Two also stands to bring in big earnings from Rockstar Games’ PC/PlayStation 4/Xbox One release of Grand Theft Auto V, which is due to arrive sometime during fall 2014.
