When was first announced in July 2020, very little was known about it,🍃 and seemingly very little had been done. Only in December 2020 was a lead writer hired, and a narrative designer was hired in January 2022. Only this week, in June 2023, were we shown the first in-game trailer of Fable at the Xbox Games Showcase. Before that, fans had been afraid that the game had been scrapped completely because of how long it had been between updates – and of course, this isn’t an isolated cꦅase.
The one that hurts most for me personally is the remake, which was announced at the Playstation Showcase in 2021 but now seems to be in development hell – I have doubts that it’ll ever come out, and if that’s the case, I’d rather not have heard about a remake at all. Star Wars: Eclipse, also announced in 2021 at the Game Awards, seems unlikely to come out within the next few years,🐓 if ever. was revealed a whopping six years ago, and has yet to release. Cyberpunk 2077 was announced in 2012, and launched in 2020. Ubisoft announced Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora in 2017 and it’s slated to launch in December 2023. The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced in 2018, and there’s no saying how long it’ll take to release, since Bethesda was working on Starfield.🧜 I cou꧃ld go on.
I get it. Many of these games were announced before the pandemic, which has disrupted development cycles that were already getting longer. Major projects, especially huge triple-A games, are getting more complex as developers race to keep up with technology and player expectations. Players are asking for bigger games, better graphics, higher frame rates, ray-tracing, and more, and developers have to do more and spend more to keep them happy. It’s unsustainable for industry trends to keep moving in this direction, but until we all realise that, developers will keep striving for bigger and better technologicಞal feats. That’s going to take more time.
But do we really all have to be hearing about projects before they’ve even been started? So early in the development cycle, there’s hardly anything to go on, and projects get cancelled in the early stages all the time. There’s no way to say when a game will be finished, or, in many cases, if it will be at all. The fact is that it’s impossible to plan out a five-year development tim⛄eline and actually stick to it – trying to do so leads to crunch and misery. Projects get extended. Time is lost to unavoidable issues, and it’s impossible to get it back. It’s also misleading to announce huge games for future consoles, knowing that they’ll drive ওsales but that your game might not ever make it to that console at all. For example, the announcement of Metroid Prime 4 in 2017 might have driven sales of the Nintendo Switch, but if it doesn’t come out until the Switch 2 is made, consumers might start to feel like they were swindled.
I’d much rather hear about a game for the first time knowing that it’s not going to be delayed four times before it reaches consumers, if it reaches us at all. It’s disappointing for players anticipating future projects, and it’s harmful press for developers who, really, are just doing their be✅st to manage a massive, multi-year project. During the Xbox Games Showcase, I was so thrilled to hear about games for the first time and know they wo🔥uld be out within a year, like Armored Core 6, and Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth. I would not be any more excited to play these games if they had been revealed six years prior. Months before it’s ready to release is perfect, giving the hype cycle just enough time to build. Years only leads to frustration.
Don’t tell me about a game until it’s nearly done, I beg you. At the very leasꦫt, don’t give us bullshit cinematic trailers that can’t possibly be reflective of the final product because of how far out the end point is – I’d rather see more of early gameplay, works-in-progress and early access games. Instead of telling us something will be out, but we have to wait indefinitely, we can instead demystify the development process, and give audiences genuine updates. Whatever it is, I don’t want trailers a year into development anymore. I can’t bear the pain of another KOTOR remake.