History ScheduleSlip / VideoGames

** 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 released wasn't even the entire game. The last four chapters (the Xen section) became available for public testing in June 2019.

* On March 10, 2021, ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles: Shredder's Revenge'' 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]].

* ''[[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.

* 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. And then 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. So that's actually a ''10-and-a-half year'' dev cycle (the game was first revealed to exist to the public in May 2006).

** 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, ''Wings of Liberty'' shipped with a Terran campaign featuring 26 missions all on its own.

* ''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.
** ''VideoGame/KidIcarusUprising'' also went through several delays too. It was initially announced in 2010 as a launch title for the UsefulNotes/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.

** ''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 [[UpToEleven 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]].

** ''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 a November 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.

** ''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, though its official release date still remains elusive.
** ''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 announce a closed beta for April 2022, 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.

* The mobile port of ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaV3KillingHarmony'' was initially slated for release on May 12, 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.

* 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). For unknown reasons, the game was postponed ''again'' on April 2, 2021, with nothing stated since.

** ''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.

* A trailer for ''[[VideoGame/TerraCresta Sol Cresta]]'' pranked viewers by setting a 2022 release date before the ship flies in and shoots it back to 2021. The game has since been delayed to an unknown date.

** ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}} 2'', the semi-sequel/semi-expansion 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 the 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.

** While not as severe as past examples, ''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, though its official release date still remains elusive.

* Similar to the ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' example above, a trailer for ''[[VideoGame/TerraCresta Sol Cresta]]'' pranked viewers by setting a 2022 release date before the ship flies in and shoots it back to 2021. The game has since been delayed to an unknown date.

* On March 10, 2021, ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles: Shredder's Revenge'' 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]].

* On March 10, 2021, ''Franchise/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles: Shredder's Revenge'' 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 [[UsefulNotes/TropesAreTools wanting to take their time in making a game that can live up to the fans' expectations]].

* 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). For unknown reasons, the game was postponed ''again'' on April 2, 2021, with nothing stated since.

* Krin, the guy responsible for the ''VideoGame/{{Sonny}}'' games, has no definite release date for ''Sonny 3''. Members on the Website/ArmorGames forums frequently speculate when ''Sonny 3'' will come out. For a time, people actually thought the guy was dead.

** The series has traditionally ''inverted'' this trope, as most entries have 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.

* ''VideoGame/RaymanLegends'' was announced in early 2012 as a UsefulNotes/WiiU launch title. Later in the year, when the [=WiiU=] 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 the 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.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess Twilight Princess]]'' was initially slated as a Holiday 2005 title for the UsefulNotes/NintendoGameCube but ended up being delayed to November 2006 in order to be a UsefulNotes/{{Wii}} launch title, with the Gamecube version being released the following month.

** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]'' initially unveiled as a 2015 release before a delay to 2016 was announced, which was later followed by a delay to 2017 to be both a UsefulNotes/{{Wii U}} and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch title.

* An entire game console was infamous for having this happen with most of its games. The UsefulNotes/{{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 UsefulNotes/PlayStation 1 and UsefulNotes/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.

* ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryTropicalFreeze'' was set for a November 2013 release, then a December release, until it was finally released in February 2014.

** Indie developer Scott Cawthon inverts this trope, as each and every sequel he's made in the series series has released sooner than any posted release date. In particular, ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys4'' was teased with a Halloween 2015 release date. Eventually the announced date was changed to August 2015. The game actually released on July 23, 2015. In fact, when ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddysWorld'' was announced, Scott said it was "Coming 2016 (Seriously.)" You know things got out of hand when he has to ''vow'' not to release a game before it's official release date.

** 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 before release, Scott stated that the sixth game would not see release for a while, having recognized how saturated the series was.

* ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' is a decade-long example due to DevelopmentHell and {{Vaporware}}; it was "coming soon" for 14 years before finally being released in June 2011 (after suffering one last one month delay, a fact the developers readily lampshaded). It took transferring property of the game from 3DRealms to Gearbox to make it happen.

*** Another really bad case of this was during a collaborative period with Creator/AdultSwim, who between 2012-13 sought to commission a 12-episode ''[=TF2=]'' 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.
** 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.
** In some cases like the above, there's also "[[InvertedTrope Reverse]] Valve Time".

** While not as severe as past examples, ''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 [[TainedByThePreview 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, though its official release date still remains elusive.