Arkane Studios have announced that the release of ‘Deathloop’ will be postponed to 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Image: Arkane Studios and Bethesda Softworks
While video games might seem to be the perfect business amid the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple video game studios are struggling to cope with the logistical hurdles of developing games remotely.
That is the case of Arkane Studios and Crows Crows Crows, which have both announced that their respective new video games, “Deathloop” and “The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe”, will not launch as planned in late 2020.
Both video game studios announced the new 2021 release window to their communities on Twitter, attributing the delay to work disruptions induced by the pandemic.
“Our ambition for ‘Deathloop’ is to deliver a signature Arkane game that takes you to never-before-seen places in a stylish new world… As we’ve adjusted to work-from-home, we found that delivering this new and exciting experience, at the polish and quality level that defines both an Arkane game and a true next-gen experience, is taking longer than normal,” the Lyon, France-based game development studio explained.
“Deathloop” was set to debut as a timed console exclusive on PlayStation, both PS4 and the new PlayStation 5, with an additional PC release.
The game tasks the player with solving the mystery of a time loop anomaly and using the supernatural abilities of the character of Colt to take out eight key targets across the island of Blackreef.
Meanwhile, “The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe” is an expanded version of Crows Crows Crows’s award-winning first-person exploration game “The Stanley Parable”, which was previously available on PC.
The new “Ultra Deluxe” edition will mark the first time the game has been released on home consoles, with Berlin-based game development studio teasing “more content, more endings, more whimsical adventures of the two best friends Stanley and The Narrator.”
An ever-growing list of delays
“Deathloop” and “The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe” join the ever-growing list of video games whose release have been postponed to 2021 due to the pandemic.
Earlier this August, Microsoft and 343 Industries announced that “Halo Infinite” will not launch as originally planned alongside the Xbox Series X in November, but sometime in 2021.
“It is not sustainable for the well-being of our team or the overall success of the game to ship it this holiday,” Chris Lee, studio head for “Halo Infinite”, said in a statement on Twitter.
This past April, Sony similarly announced that it had delayed Naughty Dog’s “The Last of Us Part II” as well as Camouflaj and Darkwind Media’s “Iron Man VR” because of the COVID-19 pandemic. After both were set to release in February of this year, then May, “The Last of Us Part II” finally came out in June and “Iron Man VR” in July. CC
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