The video game industry at large has woken up these pasts months and done something they’ve never done before – looked at their calendar. For too long, the industry has thrown their game in the cavernous Christmas buying period from September to early December, looking for present buying parents. Instead, the games cannibalise each other, leading to some poor sales, unhappy gamers and massive backlogs come Easter.
Now, the once-bulging Christmas season has shed a few pounds, and publishers are jumping ship into 2010 left and right – not a month has past when multiple games haven’t been postponed for the New Year. Take a look at some of the most disappointing delays, in our gallery.
BioShock 2
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Developer(s): 2K Marin, 2K Australia, Arkane Studios, Digital Extremes
It’s taken some fervent convincing, but the gaming populace may have finally warmed up to a second Rapture vacation. With ten years of dilapidation, Ryan’s underwater utopia falls deeper into decay as more Splicers erupt from the woodwork and the ocean caves into the metropolis – plus, your progress will be constantly hindered by the “Big Sister”. This mechanised proto-bitch springs from the shadows with the armour and weaponry of Bioshock’s Daddies, but without their lumbering, awkward trot.
Vouching for the games legitimacy, in the face of quick-cash-in-sequel claims, is a host of development partners across the world. 2K Australia joins their Marin partners for technical assistance, French based Arkane Studios are busy creating levels and Canada’s Digital Extremes are creating the game’s multiplayer.
The Reason: Take-Two announced at a press conference on July 13th that BioShock 2 would be delayed into 2010 to “provide additional development time for the title.”
StarCraft II
Platforms: PC
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
More “will they – won’t they” than a definite 2009 release, but Blizzard has confirmed StarCraft’s delay into 2010. The real time stategy epic receives a fresh coat of paint and a few tweaks ‘n’ features to the units, instead of a complete overhaul – new graphics instead of new armies. But much like the slogan to “Chess 2”, you shouldn’t mess with the classics.
Blizzard shocked fans at BlizzCon 2008 by announcing the game’s revision into a trilogy of expansion-like releases – the base game, Wings of Liberty will feature the Terran while subsequently released Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void star the Zerg and Protoss races respectively.
The Reason: The blame is aimed squarely on the game’s online coordination service, Battle.net. “Over the past couple of weeks, it has become clear that it will take longer than expected to prepare the new Battle.net for the launch of the game.”
