Earlier this week, we learned that The Order: 1886 is being delayed till early 2015 after originally being announced to release later this year. The Evil Within has also been delayed a couple months from August to October of this year, and http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/05/29/quantum-break-release-date-slips-to-2015">Quantum Break is now set for a 2015 release when the assumption was it would come out this year. These announcements come as no surprise since delays are becoming quite the trend lately.

Delays can be worth the wait in the end, since it gives developers more time to polish their games. For instance, Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs was delayed after originally being announced as a launch title on the Xbox One and Ps4 last November.  Five months later, it is released and is overall pleasing fans and scoring well in reviews. If not for the delay, Watch Dogs could have easily released well before it was finished and killed the series before it even started. Now a more polished game, Watch Dogs also has a bright future.

As disappointing as delays can be to gamers, waiting longer is a better option than receiving an unfinished game. Many whom purchased Battlefield 4 could attest to that as the game was clearly rushed and could of used a delay or two. I admit I was disappointed to hear The Order: 1886 was being delayed, but I would much rather have a finished game in the end than a broken mess as soon as possible. Sometimes, delays are just necessary. However, these delays still beg the question: Are games being announced too early?

Short answer is yes, for gamers at least because we are seeing games like The Last Guardian announced and 5 years later, we are still waiting for a release date. Of course, that’s an extreme case but what about all of the games that are teased and then never talked about again for the next year or given a projected release date that is inevitably delayed? Well, it stinks.

There are even times where a game is announced, gamers get hyped up, and then over a year later the game is delayed and then gamers either move on or are left wondering if the game is cancelled all together. In the end, delays are for the most part, a good thing. It would just be nice to have a better time table so that these delays are not happening so often and so that developers have enough time and are not rushed to put out their game. One thing is for sure, with all of the delays pushing games to next year, 2015 is looking to be a stellar year for gaming. Hopefully, all of this waiting will be well worth it.

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The simple fact of the matter is that delays/longer waits are the price that gamers pay for getting true surprise reveals at events like E3 and the like.

These days through the internet, and the way information makes the rounds it's impossible to keep anything that's well into development properly under wraps. Issue here obviously being that people love to be wowed. We wanna see things we didn't expect to see, not just stuff we've known about months in advance. So how do you give people shock and awe then? Simple. You announce something that's still so early in development the chances of it leaking ahead of time are drastically reduced.

Of course when they do that they could at least be so kind as not to act like the game is right around the corner, as they sometimes like to do (looking at you Ubisoft)

Most definitely. A lot of games are announced as concept at big events with very little to go on. With the sheer amount of effort needed to make a AAA title, unless everything runs perfectly to plan there will be a delay.

Yup.

Announcing a game early leads to a "long lead time" which helps to spread word about a game or product and leads to a large launch and hence success much like the one Watchdogs recently had.

The theory behind the strategy is found in the book "Blockbusters" by Anita Elberse

Marketing strategies are not aimed at people on sites like these, they are aimed at the general public. When was the last time a major game launched without you knowing about it? You are a known quantity, they are not concerned about you.

It's all about managing expectations. By all means announce a game, but don't go posting premature release dates then delaying it by a year. That's how you burn bridges with the consumer.

Most certainly.

The movie industry seems to have it spot on. You always see trailers popping up 8 months before release, not 8 years.

I really do think games are being announced way too early. And the simple reason for that is because we are currently just starting a new generation. All the companies want to showcase their games which they've started working on, but clearly they need some extra time to get used to the new hardware and release those games.

You could clearly tell games like Final Fantasy XV, Kingdom Hearts 3, Mirror's Edge, Division should have not been shown at last year's E3. Some of these games even being released in 2015 seem somewhat unlikely and announcing them 2+ years prior to release is too long a wait. I feel they really should have announced these games at this year's E3 to set them up for a fall 2015 or early 2016 release. Making people wait since last year's E3 and then announcing a delay will only disappoint people.

That being said, I guess they do need to announce something at E3 and not say anything at all. I think this will get better with the next round of games into this gen.

A game should not appear at 2 E3s. If you're going to announce it, the latest it should be released is 1 year after that.

I agree. Publishers always do this shit.