Games Announced Too Early

 So, lately, I’ve been thinking about hype and release dates. With Marvel's Spider-Man 2 coming out next month, all I can remember is the absolute drought of info between the 2021 PlayStation Showcase and the May 2023 gameplay reveal. While the hype train never died for me, the wait until anything about the game felt like a killer. Yeah, yeah, I know that one Shigeru Miyamoto quote about rushing games, but there are situations where games are given too much to bounce around in people’s heads. So, I got thinking: What other games were announced too early?

"Stop using my quotes to cover for bad games." Shigeru Miyamoto, probably

Yeah, this is in complete contrast to “Are Games Released Too Soon?” by Dom D'angelillo.

Let’s start with a personal one.

Kingdom Hearts III

I am not waiting 7 or 13 years

Dear God, the wait for anything substantial was torturous. The initial trailer released on the 11th of June 2013 was actually made with CGI because Kingdom Hearts III itself was not ready to be shown… until E3 2015. I want to remind everyone that the game wasn’t fully released until January 2019. That “Now in Development” thing at the end of every trailer before the release date was revealed will forever haunt my dreams. There has been nothing about Kingdom Hearts IV since its announcement in the anniversary trailer, so I can only hope there won’t be another six-year wait until the full release.

The Elder Scrolls VI

It's probably gonna be another Skyrim

With the much anticipated Starfield now out, the next project people are looking forward to from Bethesda Games Studios is The Elder Scrolls VI. With only a trailer from 2018 to go off of that only shows part of the landscape of the open world and the very recent announcement that it has entered early development, I don’t have high hopes it’ll be ready in this decade.

Cyberpunk 2077

Remember, no preorders

Sometimes, hype can be the worst enemy of games. God, the entire saga of Cyberpunk 2077, from announcement to release, was a huge mess. It was teased in 2013, and it didn’t come out until December 2020. After the critical and commercial success of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the expectations were high. Too high. As in, if there was a delay, people would send death threats. It was never going to live up to the hype, but people were drawn to the game regardless… including me. I bought the PlayStation 4 version, and it did not go well. However, because of continued updates, with the next one completely overhauling several systems, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and the Phantom Liberty DLC coming soon, the game is actually in a pretty good state right now. While it will never live up to what people expected, it’s a fun game, but it just took too long.

Metroid Prime 4

Please don't cancel this

Fans have been waiting for the next entry in the Metroid Prime series since 2007 with Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (please ignore Metroid Prime: Federation Force). All we have to go off of is the teaser trailer announcing its existence, and the fact that the game had decided to restart development from scratch by a different studio, and the Switch isn’t getting any younger. At the very least, the franchise hasn’t been forgotten since we got a remaster of Metroid Prime Remastered, and hey, Metroid Dread released, so there’s still hope.

Perfect Dark

Huh?

Does anyone remember Perfect Dark has a reboot? Anyone? Okay, maybe not everyone, but this is the perfect example of why an announcement should be made around a year before its actual release. It has only been three years, and yet I don’t see many people talking about it now. While I’m not personally invested in the game, I knew a lot of other people were, and all we got was just a CGI trailer. It was reported a few months ago that the game was suffering trouble with development, so it’s unlikely we’ll be getting anything soon.

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The main takeaway from this entire article is that while long wait times won’t kill games before they release, they certainly can hinder their full sales potential and the reputation of the developers. Games like Mortal Kombat 1 have gotten their timing right, having their announcement and release come within a few months of each other. I’m certainly hyped for the game, even though I’m only into it because of the story.

These are only a few of the more well-known examples of games that spent too much time in the oven. I’m sure there’s a ton I’m not mentioning here because I don’t follow the news on it or I didn’t think it would fit into an article like this. Comment below on what games have insane wait times, and we can endure it together until the release… or cancellation.

Please don’t cancel Metroid Prime 4.