Forspoken, one of Square Enix’s biggest potential releases of 2022, has been delayed by five months and will release on October 11. Originally, the game was aiming for a May 25 release, but now players will have to wait until fall. High-profile titles are no stranger to delays, so while this is disappointing news, it’s not exactly a shock. If anything, the delay will probably only benefit the game.
A message was posted on the official Forspoken Twitter account to shed more light on the situation. Beyond announcing the new date, the tweet also stated that “getting it right is extremely important” to the team. This is a sentiment that most gamers can absolutely get behind. After all, a delay is often better than waiting for an endless amount of post-launch patches and updates.
Taking the extra time to polish the game
Fans have been eagerly waiting for Forspoken since its first appearance in 2020. Back then it was titled Project Athia, and not much was known about the game beyond that. Since then, Forspoken has been shaping up to be a rather impressive title. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the game so far is its visuals. Trailers have shown that the game is able to render large-scale environments with an impressive amount of detail. Forspoken looks impressive enough that its delay to October makes a lot of sense. There’s likely going to be a lot of optimization needed for the game to run well and look great at the same time.
The gameplay looks impressive, too. Frey, the game’s protagonist, is able to scale the environment and navigate obstacles with ease. There’s also a range of magical powers that seem to spice combat up quite a bit, from quick energy blasts to gigantic flaming ethereal swords (which look very cool). It’s clear that there’s a lot of stuff happening here, so, again, a delay makes sense.
There’s also Square Enix’s Guardians of the Galaxy to consider. This was a title that scored favorably among critics. Unfortunately, though, it didn’t quite meet the publisher’s sales expectations. Naturally, both the developer and publisher of Forspoken would want the game as polished as possible for its release.
Either way, Forspoken and its delay to October is sure to be disappointing to some. Hopefully, the extra time is exactly what the game needs. 2022 has already had some massive gaming launches, like the recently released Elden Ring, so picking a ‘game of the year’ could be tricky when the end of the year rolls around.
