Five Delayed Games We'll See This Year

Dates don’t mean anything in the games industry anymore. When we’re given a release date, the best thing to do is take it with a pinch of salt and add on 6-months to a year. In the best case scenario, we get it when we were actually told...happy days. And in the worst case we grow another year closer to death before we actually get to play it… if at all! With all the problems we saw in 2014 of games being released broken, it can be seen as a welcome relief when something we’ve been waiting for is delayed. That being said, here are some of the most anticipated games of 2014, with one thing in common, they were all delayed until 2015.

Evolve

Due 10th February 2015

Evolve, originally set for an Autumn 2014 release, is now one of 2015’s most anticipated games and the first AAA title of the year to hit the shelves. The delay came from publishers 2K, who believed that releasing a game in the lead to the busy Christmas period against the likes of Assassin’s Creed and the Grand Theft Auto V new-gen ports may cause sales to be well below par. The wait was welcomed by fans however, who since the delay have been given various opportunities to try out the Alpha and Beta in order to get the hit of big monster battles that they had been waiting for.

 

The Order: 1886

Due 20th February 2015

2014 was a funny year for Sony, while they managed to sell more PlayStation 4 consoles than Microsoft did Xbox Ones, they lacked a truly system selling first-party game or eye-grabbing new IP. The Order: 1886 is certainly an interesting concept, an alternative history take on Victorian London, faces men against half-breeds in a battle of the ages. It wasn’t smooth sailing for The Order: 1886 though and by the first public showing it was far from alright: the frame rate was poor and the graphics were not all that, the delay was imminent. Setting a February release date allowed developers Ready At Dawn to polish what could possibly be the most important game in the PlayStation 4s life cycle so far, and with what we saw at PSX, it might just be that!

Battlefield: Hardline

Due 20th March 2015

Battlefield was one of many annualised franchises, albeit, in the infancy of its annualisation. But with all of Battlefield 4’s controversy; crashing servers and generally poor gameplay, Hardline’s delay was welcomed with open arms, 6-months is more than enough time to polish everything and run checks through open and closed Betas. This cops and robbers addition to the military shooter isn’t just ‘the next in the series’ it could well be the most important in the series, which could shoot Battlefield into the stratosphere or leave it to perish on the roadside.

Batman: Arkham Knight

Due 2nd June 2015

Arkham Knight went from being announced in March 2014, to being penned in for an October release, before being delayed until June 2015, all in the space of around three months. It seems that Arkham Knight has suffered from a typical case of ‘being announced too soon.’ The hype notch was cranked up to well over 11 after announcement and the reality was that the game was still far from finished. Arkham Knight now sits relatively lonesome in the summer window, just before E3.

 

The Division

2015

The Division was first announced 2-years ago at Ubisoft’s E3 press conference and was their, now annual, new IP announcement. An ambitious post-apocalyptic third-person shooter set in New York, The Division was a new take on the tactical shooter genre, taking elements from both the Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon IPs and left avid gamers watching on in awe. Ubisoft set an ambitious release date of 2014, but with their track record of delays following its reveal, with Watch_Dogs, The Crew and Assassin’s Creed Unity all being pushed back, it was no surprise when we learnt that The Division would be facing the same fate. The worrying news however is that Ubisoft have been hush hush on their new IP for well over 6-months, we’re still waiting for a release window, let alone a release date, all we know is it's still penned in for 2015.