Every Game That's Been Delayed In 2021

In a bustling industry where release dates are sometimes set years in advance and then tied to specific windows, such as the holiday season, game delays have also seemingly become a regular part of the development cycle. However, 2021 has seen a unique set of circumstances, which have led to massive delays of an entire generation of games.

The trouble all began when the coronavirus pandemic started early in 2020. Games that developers thought were six months out were now no longer completable in the planned time frame. The launch of two next-generation consoles, the Series X|S and PlayStation 5, meant that signature franchises, such as Halo and Gran Turismo, had their next iterations on the way. Then, at the end of 2020, one of the highest-profile launch fiascos in years occurred with the incomplete arrival of "Cyberpunk 2077," which served as a reminder to developers that it isn't enough to get a game to market – they have to deliver on their promises.

Suddenly, hugely anticipated games weren't just being pushed back a few months to make up for time lost during the pandemic. Here is every game that has been delayed in 2021.

While 2021 has been a challenging year for delays, with developers rushing to repair schedules damaged by the global pandemic, sometimes games just need a little extra polish before they're ready to go live. This appears to be the case for "Humankind," a "Civilization"-style 4X from Amplitude Studios — original release date of April 22, 2020, was pushed to Aug. 17.

The news of the delay was announced in an in-depth developer blog on Games2Gether that appeared after the game's LUCY OpenDev allowed players who had pre-purchased "Humankind" to test the game and offer feedback. The developers announced in that blog that a difficult decision had been made to postpone the release until the summer. This would allow the developers to incorporate player suggestions and adjust a myriad of balance and interface issues, as well as adjust the game's tutorial.

In addition to providing a detailed explanation of what the team has planned to improve in "Humankind," Amplitude Studios also announced it would be adding two new avatars for players who had preordered the game.

Amazon Game Studios has had a rough run. The game publishing arm of the e-commerce giant has only managed to release one of the three high-profile games it promised back in 2016, "Crucible," and even that was unreleased from digital storefronts only a couple of months after it arrived. The only one left in production, "New World," an MMO set in a fictionalized era of exploration, received another setback after its Spring 2021 release date was pushed back to Aug. 31.

The delay of "New World" was implemented to respond to player feedback from a 2020 preview event, which will improve the combat mechanics and add endgame content. However, this is far from the first development issue the game has faced. The game was initially slated to launch at the time the 2020 preview event started (Aug. 25th, 2020), but was pushed back to 2021 "to ensure that the most dedicated players have plenty of middle and endgame experiences as they venture through Aeternum."

"Deathloop" had its release date moved back a second time on April 8, when the developers announced through Twitter that the game was now scheduled to launch on Sept. 14, 2021. The tweet from game director Dinga Bakaba and art director Sebastien Mitton cited a commitment to protecting the team's safety while "preserving our team's ambitions for 'Deathloop.'"

The time-bending shooter from Arkane Studios was initially planned as a one-year timed exclusive for the PlayStation 5, set to arrive at the time of the console's launch. However, the game's release window was pushed to Q2 2021 in August 2020, apparently due to the challenges of adjusting to work from home. Fans even thought they had locked down the game's arrival when a New Zealand retailer listed the release date for "Deathloop" as May 20, 2021.

However, in September 2020, Microsoft announced that it would be purchasing ZeniMax, Arkane Studios parent company, leading to questions about whether the game would remain a timed PlayStation exclusive. However, Microsoft has stated that it intends to honor exclusivity deals already made with Sony, citing "Deathloop" specifically in a Bloomberg interview.

One of the most significant and best-received surprise announcements from The Game Awards 2020 was Turtle Rock Studios' "Back 4 Blood," a spiritual successor to the "Left 4 Dead" franchise. While development on the game seems to be progressing nicely, with glowing previews from sources such as Polygon and PC Gamer, the developers announced on March 25 that the game's release date had been pushed to Oct. 12, 2021.

The developers stated in that tweet that Turtle Rock was striving to make "Back 4 Blood" into "the best game it can possibly be at launch and the team needs more time to do this." The tweet also announced that an open beta would begin sometime in the summer of 2021.

"Back 4 Blood" is both a return to form and a passion project of sorts for Turtle Rock Studios, which was known as Valve South when the company developed the original "Left 4 Dead." The new game promises to revisit features such as the AI director, which adjusts difficulty on the fly as players progress through a level. It will also while introduce new features such as Corruption Cards, which players can use to counter the director.

When "Riders Republic," a multiplayer extreme sports title featuring snowboarding, mountain biking, and wingsuiting, was announced during the Ubisoft Forward livestream in September 2020, the game's release date was set for Feb. 25, 2021. However, that ambitious go-live date proved to be too soon, and the "Riders Republic" development team released an announcement via Twitter in January stating that the game would be released later in 2021, at an unspecified date.

It wasn't just the game's release date that was ambitious. The game plans to offer players a social playground from which they can explore seven national parks within the United States, including Mammoth Mountain, Bryce Canyon, and Yosemite. 

"Riders Republic" creative director Igor Manceau told Red Bull that each of these locations have been designed using actual GPS data, and every area can be experienced using any transportation in the game. This means that players could potentially snowmobile to the top of a mountain, wingsuit their way down the mountain, and then ski back to the lodge.

The next major video game adaptation of the popular book and film franchise "Harry Potter," "Hogwarts Legacy," was an early victim of the many game delays of 2021. An announcement on the game's official Twitter account stated simply that Portkey Games was committed to giving the game the time it needed, and its 2021 release date had been adjusted to an unspecified 2022 arrival.

While the delay was disappointing for fans, things just seemed to keep getting worse for "Hogwarts Legacy." First, the author of the original "Harry Potter" book series, J.K. Rowling, made some controversial comments online that forced Avalanche Games to distance themselves from her through a statement on the game's official FAQ page. Then, gamers were in an uproar after it was revealed that the game's lead designer, Troy Leavitt, had a long-running YouTube channel that had reportedly minimized the #MeToo movement and the sexual misconduct allegations against former Pixar CCO John Lasseter.

Leavitt ultimately stepped down from his position, which may allow Avalanche Games to pursue its vision for "Hogwarts Legacy" with fewer distractions.

Daedalic Entertainment's "The Lord of the Rings: Gollum" became another early casualty of 2021 delays when the developers released a press release in January, which announced that the game would not arrive until 2022.

The press release declined to give any information as to why the game, initially slated for a 2021 arrival, had been pushed back. Instead, it focused more on Daedalic Entertainment's partnership and distribution agreement with NACON, a French publishing company, which is at least a good sign that the game is still on the way.

Outside of a brief teaser and a smattering of gameplay footage, gamers have received few details on what to expect from "The Lord of the Rings: Gollum." Early reports on the first game based on the "Lord of the Rings" character indicate that the game will include stealth elements and will be optimized for the newest generation of consoles, including both the Series X|S and PlayStation 5.

Fans were super excited when Sony teased the next iteration in the popular "God of War" series at the 2020 PlayStation 5 showcase. They were even happier to hear that they could expect it to arrive the following year, in 2021. However, after half a year of little to no information on the progress of "God of War: Ragnarok," fans got some bad news when PlayStation Studios president Herman Hulst announced that the game wouldn't be ready until 2022 at the earliest.

Hulst explained on the PlayStation Blog that the game's development had been challenged by problems related to the access to physical facilities for features such as motion capture and voice recording. Shortly after that, Santa Monica Studios, the development team behind "God of War: Ragnarok," put out a statement on Twitter addressing the delay. While Santa Monica's message didn't necessarily go into the same specifics as Hulst, it did cite team safety amid the pandemic and the dev's commitment to creating a top-quality title for fans to enjoy.

Neither Hulst nor Santa Monica Studios offered details as to when in 2022 "God of War: Ragnarok" might arrive, meaning that it could either be an exciting spring surprise for gamers, or it might get pushed to the following holiday season.

The list of games delayed in 2021 goes on. Two of the highest-profile games in development in 2020, "Halo: Infinite" and "Gran Turismo 7," remain delayed. "Halo: Infinite" is expected in late 2021, although no definitive release date has been set, while "Gran Turismo 7" should arrive sometime in 2022, according to a statement provided to GQ.

Other games in popular franchises, including "LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga," "Gotham Knights," and "Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2," have been pushed back, with no official release dates set. Ubisoft, in particular, has been aggressively delaying release dates for some of its signature series. "Far Cry 6," "Rainbow Six: Quarantine," "Skull & Bones," and the remake of "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" were all pushed back. Indie games like "Axiom Verge 2" have also hit snags in the road to release.

Even add-ons and expansions for current games have not been immune. For instance, the promised free DLC for "Cyberpunk 2077" has been pushed back.

It isn't all bad news, however. "Outriders" finally arrived after its release date was pushed to April 1, while Housemarque's "Returnal" finally made its debut on April 30.