“[INSERT TITLE HERE]” is pushed back until [LATER DATE HERE] is becoming perhaps the most acquainted headline to many gaming blogs as companies continuously re-adjust and delay their games with final tweaks and edits.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing! There’s quite a generalisation of gaming fanatics who just roll their eyes at a company for delaying yet another game, but if you’re truly craving to play that game, then surely you’d prefer a game with a minimum amount of bugs/glitches and gameplay experiences which evidentially reflect the game developers dedication to making the game?

“A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever.”

– Shigeru Miyamoto.

Perhaps Miyamoto’s statement perfectly explains as to why delays are to be valued and praised – without it you’d most likely be playing a half-assed game and becoming severely disappointed, especially if it’s a game you’ve been anticipating for a while. Sure, there may always be the valid options of patches and updates to fix bugs and perhaps enter short extra content – but the majority views on whether or not a game is good is based on the foundation of the game, not all the expansions released later on.

That being said 2014 has been prone to many delays, which has left quite an empty amount of slots within the season which is deprived from an exciting game being released. Again, it isn’t something to frown upon if you consider the long-term benefits of a delay; however if you are a gamer and are in need to play a video game – there’s always a previous video game which you may have missed in the past which you can catch up on now! There really is no reason to complain about the absence of newer additions. Yet what has been delayed exactly?

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Assassins Creed Unity:

• Original Release Date: October 28th 2014.
• Refined Release Date: November 11th 2014.

“It’s just a couple more weeks. And it’s going to be worth it.” – Vincent Pontbriand.

Considering that this series has become an victim to the curse of annual releases,  it’s pleasing that this video game is given an extended release date in order to perfect everything rather than just publishing a broken game just to fit in the expected release date. The game being delayed is just to polish a few features.

The Witcher 3:

• Original Release Period: Autumn 2014.
• Refined Release Period: February 2015.

“We concluded that a few additional months will let us achieve the quality that will satisfy us, the quality gamers expect from us.” -Board of CD PROJEKT S.A

To make a more immersive open world, the only solution is to delay the game and to expand on what you have, The Witcher is a major franchise with high followings and high expectations, had there been no effort to this, it would’ve been a mighty disappointment.

Smash Bros 3DS:

• Original Release Period: Summer 2014.
• Refined Release Date: October 3rd 2014.

It’s no surprise that a Smash Bros game was delayed, it isn’t a brand new unexpected move by Nintendo, Smash Bros fans have become quite accustomed to the idea of waiting for after the expected release dates. Smash Bros 3DS isn’t any different by also being delayed, following the ethics which Miyamoto spoke about delayed games being “eventually good”. The Wii U version is still expected for Holiday 2014.

Battlefield Hardline:

• Original Release Period: October 2014.
• Refined Release Period: May 2015.

Battlefield 4 didn’t receive the best reception, but with a brand new focus of police and the evading from the standard military war, perhaps Battlefield Hardline could make a better addition to the series! The game delay has apparently allowed developers to delve into ‘Multiplayer Innovation, Single Player Story Depth and Stability’ – all of which is exactly what a fan of FPS games  would want to hear!

Batman Arkham Knight:

• Original Release Period: Late 2014.
• Refined Release Period: Early 2015.

The Arkham series has been a riveting experience, being perhaps one of the best comic-book games (especially Arkham Asylum), which is why Rocksteady have a difficult job living up to the expectations of the fans. Delaying it to add more time to development is always a good thing!

The Order – 1886:

• Original Release Period: Christmas 2014.
• Refined Release Date: February 20th 2014.

The visually beautiful upcoming Playstation-exclusive shooter was delayed too – the game is prioritised to be a cinematic experience where you emote with the characters in the game and their choices they decide. With this in mind, chief of Ready at Dawn Studios explained “Without the delay, we probably wouldn’t be seamless because we’d have to do what a lot of other games do, like hard cuts, then straight gameplay, and then you’re somewhere else”.

Project CARS [Wii U]:

• Original Release Date: November 21st 2014.
• Refined Release Date: March 20th 2015.

The game has been in development for quite some time, with the final official release for the PS4, Xbox One and PC versions being this November 21st, the Wii U delay could affect with the amount of sales even more so than how (I assume) poor the sales would’ve been on the Wii U. “It’s not our goal to rush the Wii U version and have it not look as good as the other ones”.

Originally intended to be released at November 21st 2014 for the PS4, Xbox One and PC which would’ve left the Wii U to have a riskier separate release date; the game has now been pushed back for all platforms, with the game expected to be released at March 20th 2015.

 “The change in release date allows the game the greatest chance of success and visibility, and the opportunity to polish the game even further”

Polishing the game might be a good idea, especially after many pointed out the evident flaws and bugs in the recent Bac Mono gameplay video!

Elder Scrolls Online [PS4/Xbox One]:

• Original Release Period: June 2014.
• Refined Release Period: December 2014/ Early 2015

The PC version of the game has already been released, but the console version which could attract more fans, seeing as the PS3 suffered many bugs at first when running Skyrim, perhaps a delay to tweak everything for the consoles wouldn’t be the worst of ideas!

Grand Theft Auto: V [PC]

• Original Release Date: November 18th 2014. – PS4/Xbox One.
• Refined Release Date: January 27th 2015.

Grand Theft Auto V was considered a massive success to many as they enjoyed not having just one protaganist, but three playable characters which brought upon some memorable and definitely suspenseful missions! It was inevitable that the PS3/Xbox 360 only game was to later be ported to the PS4/Xbox One/PC in the future considering that the original game was released during the end of the previous-generation cycle. The official dates have been released, revealing the PC version has been delayed further than the other console versions.

Armillo:

• Original Release Date: March 24th 2014.
• Refined Release Date: May 12th 2014.

The timed Wii U exclusive has already been released on the Wii U, despite the delay of the release, part of this delay consisted of replacing an entire level with something completely new and better!

Pier Solar HD:

• Original Release Period: December 2013.
• Refined Release Date: Late September 2014.

The HD remake of the late game designed on the Sega Genesis has been a prime example of suffering through numerous delays, yet after all this time, it should be worth playing – right?

 

Dying Light:

• Original Release Period: December 2014.
• Refined Release Period: February 2015.

There’s often been arguments claiming that the Zombie cliché games are dead, yet I don’t agree. There are often quite a few games which stand out from the overcrowded game type – Dying Light appears to be one of them.

 Quantum Break:

• Original Release Period: 2014.
• Refined Release Period: 2015.

The mix of a television and gaming experience in one merged system definitely draws eyes towards Microsoft’s potentially amazing exclusive – with something this complex, it only needs extended development time.

Guantlet:

• Original Release Date: September 2nd 2014.
• Refined Release Date: September 23rd 2014.

The 1985 game is being rebooted by Warner Brothers for PC’s, the short delay which only consists of a few weeks is due to “fine-tune details in order to bring gamers an even more robust multiplayer experience.”

Tom Clancy’s – The Division:

• Original Release Period: 2014.
• Refined Release Period:  2015.

The Ubisoft game which stunned people at the E3 2013 conference has the latest Tom Clancy game, which looks great! With the extra consideration of refining features rather than beating a time expectancy, we should have high hopes for this! “We are creating something we are really proud of and we don’t want to compromise on quality. We are going to release the game when it’s ready.”.

Mad Max:

• Original Release Period: April 2014.
• Refined Release Period: 2015.

Yet another game delayed, sounds exciting. Anticipating release.

Evolve:

• Original Release Period: Late 2014.
• Refined Release Period: January 2015.

Switching between the reigns of THQ to Turtle Rock Studios with 2K games as their publisher, Evolve has had a rocky start in the origin of its game, will all the alterations between studios affect the game in anyway? Perhaps that’s why the release was delayed!

The Crew:

• Original Release Date: 11th November 2014.
• Refined Release Date: 2nd December 2014

Ubisoft apparently want to ensure that the ‘game meets everyones high expectations’, hopefully by delaying it for an extra month, this will allow the game to be tweaked in any way necessary to function perfectly. A beta will open a month before release, but one can wonder how much improvements Ubisoft can make from the beta comments within that short time-span. The game is expected to be released on the PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC.

LittleBigPlanet 3 [Europe]:

• Original Release Date: 19th November 2014.
• Refined Release Date: 26th December 2014

LittleBigPlanet 3 should be an exciting entry, considering how well-thought many of the user-generated content is in the previous games; I cannot wait to see what players do with these new tools. Despite being delayed in Europe, the same date of ’19th November 2014′ is expected to comply to the US release. On the Playstation Blog, they note that the week delay is only to ‘give Sackboy the best opportunity to shine’, given the intensity from competing games being released around the same time period, this was a wise move.

Never Alone [PS4, Europe]:

• Original Release Date: 18th November 2014.
• Refined Release Period: 26th November 2014.

Whilst all other versions of the game were released on the Playstation 4, Xbox One and PC in America and the latter two were also released in Europe, Never Alone for the PS4 has been delayed in Europe.

E-line, the developer behind Never Alone stated that a patch (which has been released on all other platforms and continents) which is still being certified by the Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has  delayed the release of the game by a week.

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This list will continuously be updated with new content when any other games become delayed – what are your thoughts on delaying game projects?