Anticipated Games That Will Probably Get Delayed

Gamers always have their eyes on the horizon, scouting out all the big titles coming in the future. Unfortunately, development studios sometimes need extra time before shipping their big projects out, causing the game to miss its original scheduled release date. Since most titles can get post-launch patches for small bug fixes, delaying a game—whether by a few weeks, a few months, or a few years—is likely due to some significant changes. Let's put the pre-ordering on hold and look at some anticipated games that are probably coming out later rather than sooner.

This game delay is almost inevitable. Dead Island 2 was originally supposed to come out in spring 2015. Everyone thought the studio behind the original game, Techland, was going to handle the sequel, but they jumped to the parkour first-person zombie title Dying Light instead. Smalltime German studio Yager Development stepped in to take over development, until they were dropped from the project due to a creative conflict with the publisher, Deep Silver. LittleBigPlanet 3 developer Sumo Digital is currently working on the game, but we have a feeling that a second changing of the guard will lead to this project missing its mark and being bumped to 2017. Fortunately, Dead Island's brand of zombie-smashing is always satisfying and it'll be worth the wait—hopefully.

Despite Mass Effect 3's controversial ending, we're still looking forward to the fourth game. Major backstage changes happening at developer BioWare are likely to lead to this Eezo-fueled role-playing game hitting some significant speed bumps. In January 2016, BioWare lead writer David Gaider, known for penning Dragon Age: Inquisition and parts of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, left the studio—as did Mass Effect 3 director Casey Hudson and senior editor Cameron Harris. More importantly, Mass Effect: Andromeda lead writer Chris Schlerf left the company in February 2016 to work at the Destiny studio, Bungie. Lead writer and designer Drew Karpyshyn, known for his major contributions to writing the first two Mass Effect games, left the studio years prior but returned in 2015 to continue work on Star Wars: The Old Republic. Unless Karpyshyn gets moved over to Andromeda, we have a feeling the fourth Mass Effect will be pushed lightyears away.

Square Enix's big remake of Final Fantasy VII has veteran RPG fans foaming at the mouth in anticipation, but we have a feeling the massive task of rendering Midgar and the rest of Cloud Strife's world from scratch is going to take a lot longer than expected. Considering 2017 marks the big 20-year anniversary of Final Fantasy VII's release, it would make sense for Square Enix to aim for a launch date around that time. On the other hand, they've already revealed that the game will be released in multiple parts (probably a lot grander than your regular episode-based game). We can't wait to rally Avalanche against the Shinra Corporation on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, but we might not be fighting Sephiroth and Jenova until 2018 or even beyond. Regardless of how long it takes, we just hope Square Enix does this one justice and gives us a proper remake of this timeless RPG.

We'll be honest: The Last of Us is, for our money, one of the greatest games of the last decade. All eyes are on Uncharted 4: A Thief's End to see how well Naughty Dog adapts to making a AAA game for the PlayStation 4, and it's looking gorgeous. Naughty Dog has yet to formally announce any kind of sequel to The Last of Us yet, but the game did so well, both critically and commercially, that it's almost inevitable that a new, Cordyceps-ridden game is on the way—whether we continue to follow Joel and Ellie's adventures in this dystopian future or are introduced to completely new characters. As directors Bruce Straley and Neil Druckmann's hands have been tied with the development of Uncharted 4, we're hoping that they'll now be able to work on The Last of Us 2. At the same time, The Last of Us is such a perfect title in terms of gameplay and writing that any approach towards a sequel must be "how on Earth do we top that?" We've got faith in Naughty Dog's crew. We've also got faith in this game taking a long time and being pushed back repeatedly until it's ready to stand alongside its near-flawless predacessor.

After Rockstar's immense success with the likes of Grand Theft Auto IV, Max Payne 3, Red Dead Redemption, and Grand Theft Auto V, we're desperately fiending for a return to the Wild West in the form of a new Red Dead title. There have been all kinds of recent rumors in regards to a sequel or spin-off to Red Dead Redemption, most notably in the form of an unconfirmed map leaked online featuring a broadly-expanded American Frontier. Like The Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption is a title that helped define the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 era of gaming. Rockstar's teams certainly listen to the fans, so we wouldn't be surprised to soon hear the confirmation of the new Red Dead game that we're all expecting. You know what else we're expecting? A project of this magnitude being significantly delayed. Then again, it wouldn't be the Wild West without a holdup or two.

As much as we love Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, we still don't see The Last Guardian launching anytime soon. This game has been in development since 2007. Let that sink in for a minute: back in 2011, this was originally supposed to be a PlayStation 3 exclusive. Unfortunately, the footage Team Ico released at E3 2015 clearly reflected The Last Guardian's visibly-aged last-gen origins. We're willing to let that slide since Shadow of Colossus was one of the greatest games ever made for the PlayStation 2, but how long is too long for a game to stay in the kitchen? Given that we've seen so little of the game over the past nine years, we wouldn't be surprised if it gets pushed back to 2017 or ends up being shelved indefinitely (although we certainly hope not). We hate to make the comparison, but the last game we remember spending a decade or longer in development was Duke Nukem Forever.