Microsoft has announced the delay of two major multiformat games, as developers struggle with the difficulties of working at home.
Long before the coronavirus became a pandemic, 2020’s release schedules were already rocked by multiple delays of major games, including Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Marvel’s Avengers, Cyberpunk 2077, Marvel’s Iron Man VR, and Dying Light 2.
As is usual with video games there were few specific reasons for the delays, just that the games needed more time, but with Microsoft’s two titles it’s because of the difficulties of coping with the coronavirus and developers working from home.
Dungeon crawler spin-off Minecraft Dungeons never had a specific release date but was due to be released this month. Now it does have a release date, but it’s not until 26 May.
‘As you all know, we initially planned to release Minecraft Dungeons by the end of April’, reads Mojang’s latest blog update.
‘However, due to the current state of the world, this was no longer possible, as we wanted to guarantee the health and safety of our teams, and empower them to deliver the best possible experience to you, our players. We hope you’ll find it was worth the wait.’
It’s a similar story for Wasteland 3, the second sequel to the spiritual follow-up to Fallout, which was originally due to come out on 10 May but won’t now be out until 28 August.
‘The reality is that with these new logistical challenges our release was going to be impacted’, wrote series creator Brian Fargo.
As with Minecraft Dungeons, Wasteland 3 is a multiformat game, in this case because developer inXile had already signed a publishing deal before they were bought by Microsoft last year.
Neither delay is particularly long, but it does confirm a previous prediction that many games this year will end up being delayed by the coronavirus. Although if they’re all only for a couple of months that’s not exactly the end of the world.
The only other current report of coronavirus affecting a game’s release date is the DLC for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with Nintendo revealing that the next fighter will be from ARMS but warning it won’t be released until June.
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