Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context ScheduleSlip / VideoGames

Go To

1* ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' is a decade-long example due to DevelopmentHell and {{Vaporware}}. It was originally planned for a mid-1998 release, but constant changes in development would lead to the release date getting pushed more and more until they made the infamously snarky declaration that it'll come out "when it's done". After the ''Duke Nukem'' property was transferred from 3DRealms to Gearbox for the latter to finally complete the project, it finally released in June 2011 (after suffering one last one month delay, a fact the developers readily lampshaded).
2* All {{Creator/Blizzard|Entertainment}} products have a release time of "Soon" ([[TradeSnark TM]]). ''VideoGame/DiabloIII'' began development in 2001 shortly after the release of the ''Diablo II'' expansion pack. It would be ''eleven years'' before it would finally release. It wasn't officially announced until 2008, and then didn't hit beta until 2011, before finally releasing in 2012.
3** Meanwhile, the long-promised 1.13 patch for ''Diablo II'' took ''two years'' to come out after its previous patch, finally dropping in 2010. Then again, it's impressive that Blizzard continued to patch a game that was nine years old by then, especially at a point where most other developers were beginning to jump on the bandwagon of dropping support the instant a game turned a ''single'' year old.
4** After a 12-year wait, ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty'' was released, only to have ''one'' of the three races (Terran) come with a Single Player campaign. In order to play Zerg 1P, you will have to purchase a full-blown MissionPackSequel called ''[[VideoGame/StarCraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm Heart of the Swarm]]'', which was still in development two years after; open beta was announced (not started, just announced) in August 2012 and it finally released in March 2013. ''[[VideoGame/StarCraftIILegacyOfTheVoid Legacy of the Void]]'', the Protoss campaign, took another two years until its release in November 2015. By contrast, ''Brood War'', a "mere" ExpansionPack, came out the same year as the original ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft|I}}'' with all three races given fully playable single player campaigns, just like in the original. On the other hand, while ''[=StarCraft=]'' gave you three races with 10 missions each and ''Brood War'' added on another 8, ''Wings of Liberty'' shipped with a Terran campaign featuring 26 missions all on its own. The levels were also significantly more well-crafted (remember the mineral-blob configurations?) and had a lot more gimmicks.
5** Averted with ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft: Cataclysm'' when it was released prior to 2011 on December 7, 2010. It was an ObviousBeta compared to other expansions, but after ''Burning Crusade'' had to be pushed back to 2007 (Original release date was sometime in November 2006) and the game was ''playable'', that they could launch it.
6** Averted with ''World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria'' only because they didn't give ''any release date at all'' up until two months prior to release. (Although lots of information had been released about development and there was an open beta, so it wasn't a big surprise.)
7** ''VideoGame/{{Diablo}} Immortal'' had a pretty significant slip despite its pedigree as a free-to-play mobile entry. Announced in late 2018, it was later reported to be "pretty much ready" in early 2019, only for it to quietly return to development in radio silence. Given [[TaintedByThePreview the notoriously toxic and polarized reaction towards its announcement]], many assumed it was being substantially tweaked or [[DevelopmentHell cancelled entirely]], but signs of life eventually showed as limited alpha testing began throughout late 2020 and early 2021, and it was finally released in June 2022.
8** ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}} 2'', the semi-sequel/semi-expansion to ''Overwatch'' was announced in 2019, and even its tentative release dates have been pushed back several times, with very sporadic news of its development appearing every few months at best. During this development period, several key creators departed Blizzard, and Creator/ActivisionBlizzard itself had been hit with a hotbed of very public controversies that were no doubt [[TroubledProduction causing development troubles]]. [[https://gamerant.com/overwatch-2-delays-why-bobby-kotick/ One early 2022 report]] by ''Overwatch'' producer Tracy Kennedy alleges ExecutiveMeddling to be the blame, citing Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick for regularly forcing the ''Overwatch'' team onto random side projects [[DevelopmentHell that would eventually be canned]], wasting months at a time and producing a workplace culture that's resulted in a HighTurnoverRate. ''2'' would finally launch the first of a few closed betas in April 2022, eventually confirming an October 2022 release date, albeit just for its PVP content as by the team's own admission, more time was needed for the long-awaited single player/PVE content. And then they had to sit and watch as player retention [[TheChrisCarterEffect vanished overnight]] after their announcement that the story mode and PVE content would be far less ambitious than first announced.
9* Creator/{{Valve|Software}}, the developers of ''VideoGame/HalfLife'', ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'', and ''VideoGame/Left4Dead'' are notorious for continued delays on their release dates - so much so that their fandom has coined the term "[[http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time Valve Time]]" to refer to the manner in which they can single-handedly dilate time around themselves. This is probably mostly thanks to Valve's loose internal corporate structure, where no-one has a single, set-in-stone role to play in the company. They claim it is due to their attempts to produce high-quality games that are fun, and the developer commentary often mentions features that were not fun that had to be discarded, which certainly consumes time. Even Valve's own wiki pokes fun at it:
10-->'''Valve time for ''[[{{Vaporware}} Episode 3]]''''':\
11'''Announcement''': [[http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/halflife2episode2ob/news.html?sid=6151796 Christmas of 2007]]\
12'''Actual''': [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Coincident with the]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture Rapture]] (no, not [[VideoGame/BioShock that one]])
13** The ''[[Webcomic/TeamFortress2 Team Fortress Comics]]'' series is a particularly bad case of "Valve Time". The seven-issue story arc was originally intended to be bi-monthly... [[EpicFail but even from the beginning]], it only updated every ''four'' months at absolute best, and continued getting worse from there (issue #4 came in October 2014, six months after #3, #5 followed ''ten'' months later in August 2015, and #6 came '''seventeen''' months later in January 2017; we're still waiting on #7). Valve themselves have [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] this, first questioning the term "bi-monthly" and then joking that the comic would be annual instead. Additional lampshading was provided by the cover of issue #2, which bears the legend "70 LATE PAGES!"
14** An example happened during a collaborative period with Creator/AdultSwim, who between 2012-13 sought to commission a 12-episode ''Team Fortress 2'' series. Valve's complete failure to reach deadlines (along with an inability to follow other guidelines requested from [adult swim], including TV-compliant runtimes) cost them the deal, with all that remains of it being the "Expiration Date" short.
15** Averted with ''VideoGame/Left4Dead2''. Valve intentionally released the game on a fixed schedule (exactly a year after the first game was released) to prove they can release on time. Fans to this day still argue whether or not this was a good thing, due to several issues the game brought up, particularly [[MissionPackSequel whether it was enough of a step forward]]. However, Valve Time kicked in for The Passing DLC, although not too extreme. It was announced to be released around March 2010 and it got delayed by a month. The Cold Stream DLC was a much bigger example of Valve Time; the beta was released in March of 2011 and several release date windows were posted and passed (end of summer, on Halloween, and end of the year) and the full version wasn't released until July of ''2012''. Even the Xbox 360 version wasn't released on time due to some update problems and would be released a week later. This left Xbox owners extremely upset due to all the waiting.
16** Even fan games aren't immune to this. ''VideoGame/BlackMesa'', the fan remake of ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' on the Source engine, released a trailer claiming the game would be released in 2009. This claim stood until early 2010 when they stopped giving any estimates on a release date until around when it was finally released in late 2012. The September 2012 release wasn't even the entire game. The last four chapters (the Xen section) became available for public testing in June 2019, and the full game was released in March 2020.
17* ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'':
18** A letter packaged with ''The Elder Scrolls Legends: Battlespire'' promises that ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' will be released around late 1998. ''Morrowind'' would be released in 2002.
19** Due to the (relatively) long time between the release of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' and the Mod API for said game, and the fact that the hold up seems to be due to problems with incorporating Steamworks support, its become a minor meme to say that Bethesda is running on Valve Time.
20* Krin, the guy responsible for the ''VideoGame/{{Sonny}}'' games, has no definite release date for ''Sonny 3''. Members on the "Armor Games" forums frequently speculate when ''Sonny 3'' will come out. For a time, people actually thought the guy was dead.
21* ''VideoGame/{{Daikatana}}'': In 1997, an ad is released that promises that "John Romero's about to make you his bitch". At E3 1997, a Christmas release is promised and missed. Christmas 1998 was promised and missed. Eventually, Romero claims that ''"Come hell or high water, the game will be done on February 15, 1999."'' Well, it wasn't. It finally was in April 14, 2000.
22* ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' was initially announced in 2010 as a launch title for the Platform/Nintendo3DS, but when the 3DS's launch neared, it was delayed until August of that year. August came around, and the game was delayed until November or December. Then it was delayed until early 2012, which was when it was finally released.
23* ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'':
24** ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' was announced in 2006 and set for a 2007 release. But because they already had one third-party character in the game ([[VideoGame/MetalGear Solid Snake]]), and fans demanded another third-party character to be added (Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog), the game had to be delayed until Feb. 2008. Then when February was near, the game was delayed until March because they wanted to work out some bugs in the online system (although the online was still very buggy even in the finished product), and so the game finally saw a release in March.
25** ''[[VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosForNintendo3DSAndWiiU Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS]]'' was going to be released in summer 2014, but was released in October instead.
26** [[http://www.smashbros.com/en_US/blog/ The promotional blog]] for ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'' was forced to miss its Friday update on the week an earthquake hit Hokkaido.
27* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots''. A 2006 trailer pranked viewers by setting a 2008 release date before crossing out the "8" and replacing it with a "7." Hilariously, the game did get delayed and wasn't released until June 2008.
28* ''VideoGame/XRebirth'' was initially announced for a fourth quarter 2011 release, but was delayed until late 2013. The devs and beta testers were barred from talking freely about it thanks to non-disclosure agreements imposed by the publisher, meaning some fans were half-convinced it had become {{vaporware}} based on the lack of information. CBJ, the one dev who visits the forum on a regular basis, consistently denied this to be the case. Backlash is starting to set in, especially when one ill-advised poster [[GodwinsLaw compared the news blackout to a Nazi regime]]. [[SarcasmMode Yeah, the moderators loved that...]] (Factor in that ''Egosoft is based in Germany''.) Oh, and since ''Rebirth'' will be Steam-exclusive, other people were also joking that Egosoft is running on Valve time. The game's nigh-unplayable ObviousBeta state at release showed that the schedule slip wasn't enough, [[ExecutiveMeddling possibly as a result of publisher deadlines]].
29* ''Creator/ArtixEntertainment'' has neglected to update both ''VideoGame/MechQuest'' and ''VideoGame/HeroSmash'' in terms of storyline, instead opting to add items and minor bugfixes. ''VideoGame/WarpForce'' has been confirmed as an OrphanedSeries.
30* ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar3'' was set for release in Spring 2011 but ended up being pushed back to September 2011. Officially it was to polish the game and work out balancing issues with the multiplayer ([[FlameBait don't go there]]) but for most it seemed like a blatant attempt to get it released around the holiday season.
31* Creator/WorkingDesigns was notorious for this. Creator/ADVFilms delayed the Arc the Lad anime to come out the same time as the game. In fact, due to a combination of the usual schedule troubles and legal battles, Manga/MagicKnightRayearth earned the dubious distinction of being the last game released for the Platform/SegaSaturn (outside of Japan, anyway).
32* ''VideoGame/RaymanLegends'' was announced in early 2012 as a Platform/WiiU launch title. Later in the year, when the Wii U was nearing launch, it was delayed until February 2013, because the game still wasn't finished yet. Then when February neared, the game was delayed until September, to coincide with a multiplatform release (a decision made because of ''VideoGame/{{ZombiU}}'''s sales not meeting expectations), even though the Wii U version was already 100% complete and ready to ship.
33* In 2006, Square Enix announced a game for [=PS3=] called ''Final Fantasy Versus XIII'' with an elaborate trailer and a promise of "Coming soon", but production hadn't even started yet. In 2009, the first actual gameplay footage is shown. After this, very little is said about the game other than the occasional trailer and the promise that it still exists in spite of a lot of the staff being pulled away to work on other projects. The game would not go into full production until 2011, by which time the next set of consoles were already being talked about internally. At E3 2013, a full eight years after the initial announcement of ''Versus XIII'', they confirmed that the game would eventually see release... as a multiplatform game called ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'', still with no release date. On January 30, 2016, an "Active Time Report" shed a lot of light on the game, confirmed it was 80% complete, and that it was set to release that year with a specific date announced on March 30, 2016, which was revealed to be September 30th, 2016. That's a 10-year development cycle. To add insult to injury, Square-Enix sheepishly announced in August 2016 that the release date had to be pushed back another 2 months to November 29, 2016 to fix some last-minute Day 1 release issues, resulting in a ''10-and-a-half year'' dev cycle (the game was first revealed to exist to the public in May 2006). And finally, due to corporate restructuring, the game's final DownloadableContent installments were canceled, resulting in a story that was CutShort (though the final DLC does at least end without a cliffhanger).
34* ''VideoGame/StarCitizen'' was announced for a November 2014 release but has had the date pushed back to early 2015. An early "pre-alpha" was made available in 2015, and it remains in that state as of this writing, [[PerpetualBeta with the "full release" being pushed back endlessly]].
35* The ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' franchise has a history of this when it comes to its home console installments, with the only two to avoid this being ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'' [[note]]Miyamoto gave Aonuma's team a one-year time limit to finish the game. [[http://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/majoras-mask-3d/0/1 Something that Aonuma stuck to]], [[DontYouDarePityMe even when Miyamoto offered to give them more time]].[[/note]] and ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker The Wind Waker]]''. [[note]]The game was ChristmasRushed, leading to a planned two additional dungeons being replaced with a FetchQuest[[/note]]
36** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'' was originally planned for a late 1997 release, which slowly got pushed into the following seasons before releasing in November 1998.
37** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' was initially slated as a Holiday 2005 title for the Platform/NintendoGameCube, but ended up being delayed to November 2006 in order to be a Platform/{{Wii}} launch title as well. That version even came out first, with the original [=GameCube=] version releasing a month later in North America.
38** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Skyward Sword]]'' aimed for a late 2010 release that ultimately became a November 2011 release.
39** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' initially unveiled as a 2015 release. It then got pushed into 2016, before getting a 2017 release as a Platform/NintendoSwitch launch title and the Platform/WiiU's swan song.
40** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom Tears of the Kingdom]]'' was positioned for a 2022 release at first, then delayed to May 2023 out of quality concerns.
41** To show just how long this has been going on for the series, ''The Official Nintendo Player's Guide'' (a forerunner to ''Magazine/NintendoPower'' and other strategy guides) mentioned ''VideoGame/ZeldaIITheAdventureOfLink'' as coming out in 1987, while it didn't actually get released until the following year. Yes, the schedule was slipping as of the second game in the franchise.
42* An entire game console was infamous for having this happen with most of its games. The Platform/{{Nintendo 64}}, due to how difficult it was to develop games for (thanks to both the cartridge unit and some rather odd hardware design choices -- such as no dedicated sound chip), was notorious for its games being constantly delayed, and for long waits in between games. It wasn't uncommon for Platform/PlayStation 1 and Platform/SegaSaturn games to be released a good year or two later on the system, and it was frequently criticized by both the press and gamers alike for its relative lack of games. The situation became so bad, in fact, that Nintendo frequently tried to justify it by saying that they believed in quality over quantity.
43* ''[[Videogame/{{Scribblenauts}} Scribblenauts Unlimited]]'''s European release was stated for February 2013. While the PC version was released that month, the [=WiiU/3DS=] versions were pushed to March, then April, then May, then September and finally were set in a Nintendo Direct for December 2013.
44* ''VideoGame/TheLastGuardian'' was announced in 2007 or 2008, and still, practically no information has been given on it. Sony Computer Entertainment confirmed as of early 2013 that it is "still in development", and was finally released in December 2016, nine years after announcement.
45* ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'' was initially slated for release in summer of 2013, but missed its mark. The dev team then settled on a loose release date of "when it's done", but released the beta of the game in December 2013.
46* ''VideoGame/DeadState'' had some issues with this, mainly because development occurred while a large portion of the team was based out of ''Ukraine, during a civil war.''
47* An inherent aspect of any crowdfunded game that got noticeably more than the base amount they asked for (such as the aforementioned ''VideoGame/StarCitizen'', or ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland 2}}''). The reason is, of course, that the original estimated release date is based on being able to just ''make'' the game, a larger budget means more stuff being put in the game, and some of that stuff will take more time to develop than the original schedule (you can only get so far with hiring more people).
48* ''VideoGame/{{Bayonetta 2}}'' was said to be released in the summer of 2014 during February 2014's Nintendo Direct. Nintendo's E3 stream later that year stated that it will instead be released in the fall (September for Japan, October everywhere else).
49* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryTropicalFreeze'' was set for a November 2013 release, then a December release, until it was finally released in February 2014. Notably, the game was already done according to the developers: the delay was purely to pace out the Wii U's release schedule so its sales wouldn't be affected by ''VideoGame/SuperMario3DWorld'', which took the November slot in its place.
50* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' for the Wii U was said to release in 2014, until Nintendo's E3 stream in 2014, which confirmed a 2015 release instead. It ended up getting released in April 2015 in Japan and December 2015 overseas.
51* ''VideoGame/KingdomOfLoathing'' releases a new [[BribingYourWayToVictory donation item]] every month, and a pair of special donation familiars every year. Ostensibly they're supposed to replace the old ones immediately after rollover[[note]]8:30 PM Arizona time, in case you're wondering[[/note]] of the last day, but occasionally, since the devteam is fairly small and everyone wants to make sure the items are sufficiently awesome, development runs a bit longer than anticipated. And then sometimes the delays get their own delays.
52-->'''Trivial Update''': (January 1, 2016) The 2016 Items-of-the-Year will be... two weeks late. Let's say. Two weeks. [[TemptingFate That seems like a good long time]].
53-->'''Trivial Update''': (January 14, 2016) I'm gonna need another week to finish 2016's Items-of-the-Year. They're just that good!
54* The in-development ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'' project began in Spring 2014. In an interview in January 2015, the developer stated he hoped to have a full playable beta ready by Summer, but as of Fall 2015 the game is still a pre-alpha sandbox, only ~10% complete. Although the developer generally keeps to his self-imposed schedule of releasing updates on the 1st and 15th of each month (though he's missed that deadline a couple of times), the game itself is taking much longer to complete than anyone expected. This is largely due to the developer being the sole programmer, as well as his decision to incorporate fans' ideas which massively increased the game's complexity and development time. It took until late 2020 for the game to release its first actual ''alpha'' demo with one rival... out of ten.
55* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'':
56** The series has traditionally ''inverted'' this trope, as most entries developed by creator Scott Cawthon had surprise releases weeks and even ''months'' before the announced one. In particular, ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys4'' was teased with a Halloween 2015 release date, which got shifted to August 2015, before actually releasing in late July 2015. In fact, when ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysWorld'' was announced for a release in 2016, creator Scott Cawthorn had to include a tongue-in-cheek "seriously" to ensue fans that he actually meant it this time.
57** Averted with the release of ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSisterLocation'', which was given a release date of October 7, 2016 and actually did get released on that day. It didn't stop Scott from attempting to throw fans off with not one, but two hoaxes about the game's fate leading up to its eventual release, however.[[note]]The first was a teaser image insinuating that the game was "cancelled due to leaks", the second was Scott claiming parts of the game were too dark and disturbing, and that he was considering editing those parts, therefore delaying the game.[[/note]]
58** The biggest inversion must have been ''VideoGame/FreddyFazbearsPizzeriaSimulator''. The game was released with no announcement, no teasers, and no fanfare that characterized the previous games. What is more, just several months prior, Scott stated that the sixth game would not see release for a while, having recognized how saturated the series was.
59** Played straight with ''Five Nights at Freddy's: Security Breach'', however. Initially planned for a late 2020 release, it ended up being delayed many times, with a currently scheduled release window of late 2021. This was, however, a factor beyond the developers' control, as the COVID-19 Pandemic forced them to alter their plans. Still, one wonders if the delay was to make up for all the years of Scott releasing games before schedule.[[note]]Technically, the game is not Scott's, as it was developed by another game studio, with Scott only providing creative input.[[/note]]
60* ''VideoGame/{{beatmania}} IIDX'' has always been consistent with arcade releases, with new releases coming out once a year. The same, however, can't be said for console releases. ''beatmania IIDX 3rd Style'' through ''6th Style'' had their console ports released about six to nine months after their respective arcade versions, which is reasonable, but ''7th Style''[='=]s port infamously took two years after its arcade counterpart and ''6th Style''[='=]s port to get a release. Fortunately, the success of ''7th Style''[='=]s port allowed Konami to continue releasing ports on a consistent schedule, coming back from three versions behind to only one for later releases. However, the second snag hit after ''beatmania IIDX 16 EMPRESS + PREMIUM BEST'' for [=PS2=] was released, when Konami ceased producing ''IIDX'' ports. The next consumer version would be in 2015 with ''beatmania IIDX INFINITAS'', which as of the first alpha test seems to be a port of ''beatmania IIDX 17 SIRIUS''[='=]s (2010) songlist with all of one song from later versions ("FLOWER") and a game engine based on then-current ''IIDX'' games.
61* ''VideoGame/ChromaSquad'' was meant to be released in the Summer of 2014, but problems, including a problem with Creator/SabanBrands, lead to it being delayed until April 30, 2015.
62* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' has been hit '''hard''' by this. Up until Beta 1.1's release at the end of 2010, updates came out every few days. Then, they slipped to every month. Then, starting with Beta 1.8, they came out every two months. Then, they started having no schedule, coming out every few months, with the gaps ranging from 2-5. Then, it was ''10 months'' between 1.7 (October 2013) and 1.8 (September 2014), then '''''18''''' months between 1.8 and 1.9 (February 2016)! Thankfully inverted with the update with 1.10, releasing a mere four months later (June 2016) and continued with 1.11 five months after that. This can be justified by how updates have added much more in each one.
63** ''Minecraft'''s development delay for 1.8 didn't affect the [[GameMod modding community]] much, instead allowing 1.7 modpacks to grow up very well thanks to freshly introduced ease of making massive [[note]]by which is meant beyond ''FTB Monster'' massive, like the DNS Techpack and others[[/note]] modpacks thanks to the new ID name system, whose extensive Forge use [[AntiFrustrationFeatures marked the end of block and item ID conflicts]]. When 1.8 came out, Forge was quick to update, but most mods ended up stagnating due to the rendering overhaul. Slowly, modpack creators and modders have warmed up to the new versions, moreso considering that 1.9 and 1.10 ended up staying surprisingly compatible with 1.8, but 1.7.10 (the last sub-release of 1.7) is still the favorite by far with many mods keeping themselves there, including the ubiquitious and ever-beloved Thermal Expansion/Foundation/Dynamics series of mods by Team [=CoFH=], to the point that many mods, be it dedicated ones like Et Futurum as the only content or others like the decorative mod ''Chisel'' and magic mod ''Videogame/{{Botania}}'' as side-features, [[SerialEscalation include features from later versions of the game to make up for the lack of mod porting]].
64* ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' was initially announced in 2013 with a a Winter 2014 release date. The end of 2014 approached and a year-long delay was announced - considering the substantial lack of information Atlus had been giving on the game, it wasn't much of a surprise (it was only after the delay the first gameplay trailers even started appearing). What ''was'' a surprise was the second delay, pushing the game back from late 2015 to September 2016. The game landed on track in Japan, but the English worldwide release date that was set for February 2017 ended up being delayed five more weeks to April 4, 2017. As compensation for the delay, the Japanese voice track was added as an option, which is a rarity for Atlus games.
65* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
66** ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' and ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' are both celebrations of Sonic's 25th anniversary, but the first detail announced about either of them is that they were going to be released in Sonic's 26th year. It was earlier averted with their [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 15th anniversary game]], which was [[ChristmasRushed rushed to make the anniversary]] and had a lot of problems as a result. ''Sonic Mania'' would subsequently be pushed back from its initial release window in spring of 2017 to that summer.
67** ''VideoGame/SonicBoom: Fire & Ice'' was pushed back from its initial holiday 2015 release date to September of 2016 in order to ensure its quality (especially since ''Rise of Lyric'' had become infamous for being a rushed ObviousBeta and ''Shattered Crystal'' - its immediate predecessor - was given lukewarm reviews).
68* ''VideoGame/MightyNo9'' was said to be released somewhere in April 2015, but was pushed to a September 15, 2015 release date for America, and 18th for the worldwide release. It was then pushed to the first quarter of 2016, when it was then said to release February 9th, and that there wouldn't be anymore delays. It was then delayed a ''third'' time, to a tentative release date, until eventually settling on June 21st, 2016. The frequency of the delays helped to make the game infamous.
69* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2'' was originally slated for release in the West in 2012. The release was then pushed back to 2013, after which there was nothing but dead silence from Sega regarding whether the game would ever be released, or if it was quietly cancelled. The game's North American release would be SavedFromDevelopmentHell by Microsoft, who announced at E3 2019 that they would publish the game exclusively on PC and Xbox One in 2020.
70* ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing: New Horizons'' was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEJXS0MiKOA first teased]] to be coming in 2019. When the E3 2019 edition of ''WebVideo/NintendoDirect'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3YNL0OWio0 officially revealed the game]], it was then said to be coming in March 20, 2020.
71* ''VideoGame/Anthem2019'' First, it was originally announced for a Fall 2018 release date, which was then pushed back several times to Holiday 2018, and then to Spring 2019. When the game finally did come out, it was an ObviousBeta, owing to an incredibly TroubledProduction. The game did have a Roadmap of planned future content, but Creator/BioWare repeatedly missed the release dates for the content on the Roadmap. The Cataclysm, which was originally supposed to release in May, was pushed back repeatedly until August. In September of 2019, ''Creator/BioWare'' announced that they were abandoning the Roadmap of planned content and would instead be delivering seasonal updates while they work on fixing and improving the core game.
72* ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' kept slipping throughout [[MeaningfulReleaseDate 2020]], from April, to September, to November, to be finally ChristmasRushed despite the PortingDisaster of [=PS4=] and Xbox One versions.
73* ''VideoGame/{{Outriders}}'' has been delayed twice: once planned to release around Christmas 2020, it was delayed to February 2021, and from there, to April [=1st=], 2021.
74* ''VideoGame/{{Strider}}'' has a few run-ins with this:
75** [[VideoGame/StriderArcade The first Arcade game]] was initially planned for release in December 1988, but due to the director's perfectionism got delayed and released on March 1989 instead. Its [[Manga/{{Strider}} NES counterpart]] was developed in parallel and first assigned an October 1988 release date, only to be delayed into December, then again for early 1989 before finally vanishing from Japanese publications altogether. It survived in America where it was reported to be released in May 1989...only to end up releasing in June in a [[ObviousBeta very buggy, barely finished manner]].
76** The [[Platform/TurboGrafx16 PC Engine]] port of the game is a very well documented disaster: Things started fine when first announced in August 1989 as a Hu-Card game, then upgraded to a [=SuperGrafx=] exclusive title in December. By 1991 and due to the console's declining sales, it was downgraded to a bi-compatible [=SuperGrafx=]/PC Engine title. Then development went silent until early 1993, when it was now being developed for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM System exclusively. Late 1993 brought another format change when it became Arcade Card compatible and announced a release date of March 1994. Then it was delayed for April. No, May. Then July. Maybe August? Finally September became the magic month it finally released. The game's producer, infamous in Japan for getting games delayed in this fashion, eventually shaved his head publicly as apology over this. ''Twice''.
77** Initially averted with ''Strider 2'': rumored to be delayed for a 2000 release, it ended up releasing in December 1999 despite a very chaotic development cycle. Its English [=PlayStation=] port, however, was hit with a minor delay when its initial May 2000 release ended up being in July.
78* Initially, ''VideoGame/LegoStarWars: The Skywalker Saga'' was slated to release on October 20, 2020, as mentioned on the official ''Franchise/StarWars'' Website/YouTube channel in a video uploaded on May 7 of that year. Later that day, the video was made private and a new video with the release date cut out was uploaded. Then on August 26, the release year was mentioned as 2021 on Lego’s website (before also being updated to remove the release year). The next day at the 2020 Gamescom Opening Night Live, a Spring 2021 release window was mentioned (along with ports to the [=PS5=] and Xbox Series X/S). The game was postponed ''again'' on April 2, 2021, as TT Games wanted more time to work on the game. The game now has a release date of April 5, 2022.
79* On March 10, 2021, ''VideoGame/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesShreddersRevenge'' was unveiled and announced to be coming sometime within the year. A few months later, when the trailer for April O'Neil's playable character reveal dropped on August 25, it showed a release window of 2022. [[https://twitter.com/Dotemu/status/1430609146752258061 DotEmu went on to explain this]] as [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools wanting to take their time in making a game that can live up to the fans' expectations]].
80* ''VideoGame/{{Driver}} 2'' ends with a caption stating "Tanner and Jones will return Fall 2002". ''[=DRIV3R=]'' ended up releasing over a year and a half later in June 2004.
81* ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasyRelink''. Originally announced in 2016 for release in 2018, the game was delayed as its scope grew to the point that Cygames only felt comfortable releasing a more concrete release date when development was nearly complete. It released on February 1, 2024, six years after its planned initial release date.
82* A trailer for ''VideoGame/SolCresta'' pranked viewers by setting a 2022 release date before the ship flies in and shoots it back to 2021. The game was later delayed indefinitely, but eventually released on February 22, 2022.
83* ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars]] [[UpdatedRerelease 1+2: Re-Boot Camp]]'' was announced during E3 2021 for release near the end of that year. Not long after, it was delayed to 2022, and eventually given a release date of April 8, 2022... only for it to be delayed ''again'' to an unknown date in light of the Russo-Ukrainian War. Its release date would ultimately be April 20, 2023.
84* The mobile port of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' was initially slated for release on May 26, 2021, but was delayed indefinitely just two days before release on account of bugs becoming apparent at the last minute. It was eventually rescheduled to April 12, 2022.

Top