To no one's great surprise, Deathloop has been delayed. Following the likes of Halo: Infinite, Gotham Knights, and Returnal, the upcoming time-looped shooter from Arkane Studios is another victim of delays caused by issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Deathloop will now be launching on September 14, 2021, roughly three months later than originally intended.
Though the current worldwide circumstances have been affecting game development cycles for over a year, the majority of video game industry complications seem to be making themselves known in 2021. Many other AAA titles, such as God of War: Ragnarök and Horizon Forbidden West, are expected to be delayed as well, even though both of those games are currently still slated for 2021. These frequent delay announcements are especially discouraging since they have come after the beginning of a new console generation. The Xbox Series X/S and the PlayStation 5 – the latter of which has Deathloop as a timed exclusive – have so far had a lackluster lineup of games to take advantage of the new hardware.
The announcement came earlier today via the Deathloop Twitter account, which posted a video featuring game director Dinga Bakaba and art director Sebastien Mitton explaining the delay. Ultimately this is the right move for Arkane, but it is still disheartening when the original launch date was growing so near. Check out their statements below:
Expect More Video Game Delays Throughout 2021
The pandemic has widely affected the video game industry as a whole, not just game development. The semiconductor shortage largely responsible for the unavailability of the new consoles will be investigated by the Biden administration, but the games themselves facing issues is a separate problem from hardware shortages. Studios all over the globe (Arkane Lyon, the division behind Deathloop, is located in Lyon, France) are having to adjust to work-from-home scenarios while facing the worldwide financial troubles.
Arkane is known for its detailed game worlds, specializing in the immersive sim genre with titles such as Dishonored and Prey, so developers being unable to directly interact with one another is no doubt having an adverse effect on creating the desired player experience. Every other development studio is dealing with the same circumstances, so other video games slated for 2021 are more than likely going to be delayed as well. Deathloop is simply the most recent game to be delayed, but it's promising that its delay was only a few months and not indefinitely, as it's shaping up to be one of the year's most promising releases.
Source: Deathloop/Twitter