Sad news for those excited for Square Enix’s new RPG Forspoken. In a statement today, the company announced the game’s delay to October 2022. Its initial release date was May 25, marking this as a nearly five-month delay. However, after high-profile backlash to games like Cyberpunk 2077 releasing in an unfinished state, it seems like the logical move. Read on to learn all about Forspoken‘s significant delay to late 2022.
Square Enix Announces Five Month Forspoken Delay
Yes, Forspoken will now release on October 11, 2022. The official Twitter account confirmed this today (March 7), detailing the delay and the reasons behind it.
While the statement doesn’t give a definitive reason, it seems like the game isn’t yet in a finished state. “During the next few months we will focus all our efforts on polishing the game,” the release reads. Previous high-profile delays, such as Deathloop‘s, were pinned down to the ongoing pandemic. However, it seems that the Forspoken delay is in the best interest of the finished product.
While fans excited for this new RPG IP may be disappointed, the Forspoken delay does make sense. The backlash CD Projekt RED faced after Cyberpunk 2077‘s botched release seems to have changed studios’ attitude towards delays. Previously seen as an undesirable obstruction, it now seems that delaying a game is in the best interests of both developer well-being and the final game.
Nonetheless, Square Enix IP billed Forspoken as their latest big IP. A PlayStation 5 console exclusive, the game follows a New York adolescent transported into a fantasy realm called Athia. Unlike Square’s titanic Final Fantasy series, Forspoken‘s gameplay key is traversal. There’s a deep parkour system to make traveling the world smooth, alongside a sprawling open world. Uncharted veteran Amy Hennig contributed to the story, so expectations are unsurprisingly high.
While some may be disappointed right now, it seems that Forspoken‘s delay is in the best interest of the game. The wait to release is slightly longer, but it should result in a more polished experience when it does roll around.
Luke Hinton is a freelance culture journalist living in Cardiff, Wales. He graduated from Cardiff University with a degree in Journalism, Media and Communications, and currently balances his freelancing work with postgraduate studies. He specialises in film, TV and entertainment writing.
