While it’s hard to say if this year has been above or below average for video game release date delays, there have definitely been quite a few. This can be attributed to many factors, but it still stings when a game you look forward to gets pushed back. It can also be difficult to keep track of the many game delays we have had, so we have created a list to help you keep track.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League provides a twist to usual comic book stories by making everyone’s favorite heroes the villains. While usually, the Suicide Squad is sent on smaller missions, this time, they must free Metropolis from a Justice League turned bad. This means fighting the Man of Steel and Batman directly.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was unmasked in 2020 as the next step in the Arkham franchise and was flying towards a 2022 release window. Due to complications, a delay was given in March 2022 that completely took it out of 2022. While this new date was originally supposed to be May 26, a delay was posted on April 13, taking it to February 2024.
Atlas Fallen
Most open-world action games don’t feature quite as much interaction with the environment as Atlas Fallen does. The map is covered in sand, and your character’s attacks also heavily feature a sand flair. If you’ve ever wanted to play a game as Spider-Man villain, Sandman, this might be your best option.
Atlas Fallen (from the same developer as Lords of the Fallen and The Surge) rose from the dunes in August 2022 with a May 2023 release date. This sand-filled open-world title was delayed to Aug. 10, with the announcement coming only two months before its original release date.
Immortals of Aveum
Immortals of Aveum looks to break up the first-person shooter formula by making it all about spells, not guns. If you’ve played Ghostwire: Tokyo, you already have some experience with shooting magic instead of bullets. The great cast is led by Gina Torres (Ikorra Ray in Destiny 2 and Zoe Washburne in Firefly) in a story all about battlemages fighting to save a planet from imminent doom.
As far as delays go, this one isn’t all that bad compared to other entries on this list. Rather than a massive delay, this one releases on Aug. 22 after its original July 20 date.
Goodbye Volcano High
Goodbye Volcano High might first strike you as strictly visual novel-esque, but it’s more than that. The game also has a rhythm game component. The title has a double meaning, as graduation is coming for the Volcano High seniors, but so is an asteroid. Players should expect a story about growing up and facing mortality.
This game has one of the longest release schedules, contrasting with the above. Goodbye Volcano High was revealed in 2020 with a 2021 release window. Instead of meeting that date, a further delay was handed down in August 2021, setting sights on a 2022 release. After most of 2022 came and went, an announcement in November pushed it to June 15. It has since hit a snag and will be out on Aug. 29.
Forza Motorsport
The Forza series is one of the most expansive Xbox franchises. While they ditched the number Forza Motorsport is still the ninth entry. The straight-laced track racing contrasts so well with the spin-off series Forza Horizon to set it as one of the best racing franchises. The advancement in technology has only pushed the terrific graphic fidelity of these games further and further.
This next entry in the Forza Motorsport line premiered at the 2020 Xbox Games Showcase. A couple of years later, at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase, it was given a release window of Spring 2023. The January 2023 Developer_Direct event removed the “Spring” part while keeping the 2023. It wasn’t until the June 2023 Xbox Games Showcase that the actual release date reveal of Oct. 10 put things back on track.
Endless Dungeon
If you played Dungeon of the Endless, you have some idea what to expect. That game is a ferocious dungeon crawler with a squad to serve as backup. It featured roguelike, tower defense, and twin-stick elements. All of this was wrapped around a pretty difficult experience.
Endless Dungeon (the naming convention is a little bizarre) pushes this gameplay forward with more expansive co-op and action and was set for a May 2023 release date before being pushed to October 19. This wasn’t the only big change in development, as Amplitude Studios also dropped the squad size to three to help solo players.
The Day Before
The Day Before is an open-world survival game and one of the most bizarre entries on this list. It was revealed in 2021 with a June 2022 release date, but a desire to upgrade from Unreal Engine 4 to 5 pushed it to March 2023. Suddenly, in January 2023, the game’s Steam page was completely pulled down due to trademark issues, according to the developer. While a delay to Nov. 10 was declared at the same time, it was said to have been planned before the Trademark complications.
To abate some rumors of being a hoax, developer Fntastic has released gameplay in the form of a 10-minute video delivered in February. However, the gameplay doesn’t truly set it apart from other games in the same genre, like Day Z. We at Twinfinite even likened it to a Fortnite mod.
Skull and Bones
After making a smash hit in the naval combat scene with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, Ubisoft decided to try its hand once more with Skull and Bones. The game has since tried to expand on only offering ship-based combat, resulting in further delays. As a matter of fact, Skull and Bones is likely the most delayed game on this whole list.
It premiered in 2017 for a mid-to-late 2018 launch. This obviously didn’t stick, and the game received two decent delays. The first took into 2019, and an investor call with Ubisoft revealed it wouldn’t be out until at least 2021. This then turned into not until 2022-2023. While Ubisoft showed off more of the game at their June 2023 Ubisoft Forward, Skull and Bones still lacks a release date, and the current estimate is likely sometime in 2024.
Homeworld 3
The Homeworld series started in 1999 from the same developer that created Company of Heroes. This space RTS (real-time strategy) set itself apart with groundbreaking graphics (for the time). As this game took place in a three-dimensional space, this unique gameplay aspect drew genre fans to the series. It further made its name with Homeworld 2 in 2003, but it was dormant until Gearbox Software gained publishing rights and released the series’ first modern game in 2016.
As it’s been almost seven years since the release of Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak, and fans have been eager for the next installment. While it never had an exact release date in the first place, the initial delay was made known in June 2022 for an early 2023 launch. It obviously didn’t make this date and is set to release sometime in February 2024.
The Wolf Among Us 2
The Wolf Among Us tells a prequel story to Bill Willingham’s unique comic book series, Fables. The comic focuses on many iconic fairytale characters forced from their homes, moving into a special neighborhood in New York City. The story drops the glitz and glamor from fairytales and gives a stark view of characters like Cinderella, Prince Charming, and Snow White. The game follows Bigsby Wolf, the Big Bad Wolf, who works as the neighborhood’s sheriff.
While the sequel was originally thought lost in the implosion of Telltale Games, its resurrection led to the re-announcement of The Wolf Among Us 2 in 2019. The game was eventually given a 2023 release date. Though, in March, it was delayed until sometime in 2024.
Blue Protocol
Bandai Namco gathered the teams behind the ‘Tales of,’ Tekken, and Ace Combat franchises to use their talents and create Blue Protocol, a new MMORPG. As you might expect, the story involves a world on the brink of destruction. You must travel through time to right the wrongs and hopefully prevent the coming cataclysm.
Blue Protocol was originally supposed to come out this year and still managed a June release in Japan. Word is the localization work on an MMO the size of Blue Protocol required more time than previously thought. While a closed beta happened outside of Japan, the game won’t arrive until sometime in 2024.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn
While Immortals of Aveum creates a world with only spells used, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn places guns at the same level as magic. Players will get to harness 19th-century firearms (such as the musket and blunderbuss) as their main means of offense. These weapons have major drawbacks regarding fire rate and reloading, so the action and combat will be much more tense.
This third-person action RPG was originally revealed in March 2022, with an anticipated release date later that year. Delays took it out of that date and have caused it to skip 2023 entirely. Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is currently shooting for a release in 2024.
Ark 2
Ark: Survival Evolved was one of the first non-Minecraft survival crafting games to really take off. It dropped players in a dinosaur-infested jungle with the ability to build and tame surrounding creatures. Anything could be tamed and ridden, letting players take to the skies on a pterodactyl. With the first game released in 2015, it has since been showing its age. Players have since had other games to compare Ark to (Conan Exiles, Valheim), and there was plenty of speculation over what a sequel might look like.
The hype only intensified when the first Vin Diesel-filled trailer for the sequel premiered in 2020. Supposedly the game is set for early access this year in lieu of the original 2023 release date, but nothing official is known yet. At this time, Ark 2 will be headed for a full release on Xbox and PC in 2024.
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (Xbox Version)
Warhammer: Vermintide was released in 2015 and took the Left 4 Dead gameplay model (four-player co-op against an enemy horde) and set it against the Warhammer universe’s Skaven. Gathering several playable characters with different characteristics/playstyles, the story took place across Ubersreik. A sequel was later released in 2018.
While fans enjoyed the Warhammer Fantasy setting, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide blew up as it would use the previous games’ formula in the Warhammer: 40,000 setting. It was first announced in July 2020. At that time, it was shooting for a 2021 release, but complications due to COVID-19 caused a delay into November 2022. The game eventually met that goal, but only for the PC version. There still isn’t an official release date, but developer Fatshark has said it hopes to have the Xbox version out by the one-year anniversary of the PC release.
Hollow Knight: Silksong
Hollow Knight is a hand-drawn 2D side-scroller action game. The main character journeys through a vast world riddled with enemies and bosses. The game is challenging and rewarding and shares similarities with the Souls games. One of the biggest highlights is player freedom, where the world opens up quickly, and everyone can forge their own path.
Considering how beloved the first game is, this is probably one of the most frustrating entries on this list. The Hollow Knight sequel Silksong was unveiled in December 2019 but went almost completely dark on news or details for a few years. The last big showing of it was at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase in June 2022. A tweet from the Xbox account claimed that every game appearing in the Showcase would be out in the next 12 months. As you can tell, June 2023 came and went, and Silksong remains unseen.
Pragmata
Pragmata is definitely the most enigmatic game on this list. While there have been some amazing-looking cinematic trailers, almost nothing about the game is known. It seems to have mech suits, but we’re still waiting for the first gameplay. Though, it might be a little ways off.
PlayStation-exclusive Pragmata was first shown during the PlayStation 5 reveal stream in June 2020. It looked like a game that was going to take a while, so the original 2022 release window never seemed to be all that reasonable. It wasn’t and was later delayed to 2023. The June Capcom Showcase had even more bad news in the form of an additional delay. This time, it didn’t include a new release window or date.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
The first part of the Final Fantasy VII remake was released in 2020 and set a new bar for video game remakes. Square Enix even went all-in on the FF7 story and remastered the PSP title Crisis Core. All this effort is made to craft the ultimate version of Cloud Strife’s journey. Helped by the success of Final Fantasy 15, the game became an action RPG rather than sticking to its turn-based roots.
The next part was first seen in 2022 during an anniversary event for the original Final Fantasy VII. The release date given was a narrow window of Winter 2023. The game appeared in June 2023 during Summer Game Fest with the news that it won’t be out this year and is headed for an early 2024 launch.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown
For some unknown reason, The Test Drive Unlimited games skipped the last generation completely after a decent following on Xbox and PlayStation. They were almost entirely unique (until Forza Horizon) for the freedom they allowed, giving players the ability for on and off-road exploration. The first game was set in O’ahu and built based on satellite images. The sequel let players explore O’ahu once more and also took them to Ibiza. With how technology has advanced, the next game seems to be taking full advantage.
Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown was announced in July 2020, and a later trailer revealed it would take place on a 1:1 recreation of Hong Kong Island. While it didn’t have a firm release date, a delay into 2023 was announced in May 2022. The 2023 window will all be missed as a mid-July announcement revealed a further push into 2024.
Delayed Games That Have Already Released in 2023
There have still been quite a few games briefly delayed in the first half of the year before their eventual release.
The Dark Pictures: Switchback
Supermassive Games played off Until Dawn’s success in creating Rush of Blood, an on-rails shooter for the first PSVR. It played off of the developer’s expertise in the horror genre to make something unique for VR. So when the PSVR2 was announced rolled, Supermassive got to work on a successor that would work within the first season of their Dark Pictures Anthology.
Originally meant as a PSVR2 launch title, The Dark Pictures: Switchback was supposed to frighten players on Feb. 22. In order to deliver a little more polish, developer Supermassive Games released it a month later on March 16.
Atelier Ryza 3: Alchemist of the End & The Secret Key
Atelier Ryza is the first among the Atelier franchise for a whole trilogy to be based around a single alchemist. All prior games were a trilogy around a theme featuring three different girls (and one guy) in an interconnected world. Ryza proved popular after the first game’s release, so every subsequent game returned to her story. Considering 2016’s Atelier Sophie, the first PS4 Atelier game, received a sequel in 2022, this might not be the last we see of Ryza.
This finale in the Atelier Ryza trilogy was set for a late-February release. Koei Tecmo synthesized a delay in January that set it back by only a month to March 24.
The Last of Us Part 1 (PC Version)
After 10 years as a PlayStation exclusive, Joel and Ellie’s adventure expanded beyond consoles. Now renamed to Part 1 to match with the sequel, the graphics were updated for PC. While this means some character faces were changed slightly, the core story stayed the same. A grieving father must get an immune girl to the last bastion on earth that can create a vaccine.
While this might be a shock considering the finished product, The Last of Us Part 1 was delayed by a couple of weeks from its original launch date. Instead of coming out on March 3, it hit computers everywhere on March 28.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
Despite taking place at one of the roughest parts of the Star Wars timeline, Jedi Cal Kestis managed to survive. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was a nice surprise of a Star Wars title, as it offered something similar to Force Unleashed, with a modern appeal. What we got was Dark Souls meets Star Wars, and it worked. Watching Cal grow and evolve through the story was one of the highlights, so a sequel just made sense..
In another case of a delay that still led to a disappointing state at launch, the second journey of Cal Kestis was originally supposed to drop on March 7. An EA tweet in January 2023 informed excited fans that the game would actually come out a month later, on April 28.
System Shock Remake
System Shock is one of the most seminal PC games ever created. We got BioShock, Dead Space, and Prey from a story about a hacker stuck aboard a space station with a rogue AI. The fact that mechanics of System Shock became more commonplace in other games is a true sign of how important it was to the evolution of gaming. A remake was always going to happen; it just took almost 30 years.
This gaming classic’s remake was revealed in 2018, with an estimated release in 2020. While there wasn’t a full release that year, Nightdive Studios did release an alpha demo on PC. The studio faced issues stemming from COVID-19 but put out an updated demo in 2021 and later that year announced a 2022 release window. The game hit one final delay from there into 2023 and was released on May 30. However, this was only for the PC version, as nothing has been said about the console versions since its launch.
Amnesia: The Bunker
There are few first-person horror series as synonymous with the genre as Amnesia. These games have been scaring fans since 2010 with The Dark Descent. The Bunker continues that while offering players a touch of procedural generation, making the titular bunker’s map and whatever frights encountered entirely random. If you’re up for being scared, there’s not much better than legitimately never knowing what’s coming next.
This claustrophobic horror title was revealed in December 2022 and given a March 2023 release date. Development didn’t progress without issue, though, and two additional delays moved Amnesia: The Bunker to the June 6 date it then did meet.
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