Sony Interactive Entertainment and developer Housemarque have just announced that Returnal, a third-person roguelike, will have its release date delayed.
The title, which was originally supposed to be released on PlayStation 5 on March 19th, will hit store shelves on April 30th. The delay of Returnal, however, is only the latest in a long series that has continued since last year.
These are the words of the press release released by Sony on Twitter:
Returnal has a new release date of April 30, 2021. SIE and Housemarque have made the decision to move the release date in order to give the team extra time to continue to polish the game to the level of quality players expect from Housemarque.
Update: Returnal has a new release date of April 30, 2021. SIE and Housemarque have made the decision to move the release date in order to give the team extra time to continue to polish the game to the level of quality players expect from Housemarque.
See you in April! pic.twitter.com/xb6IBWJ5TQ— PlayStation (@PlayStation) January 28, 2021
The postponement of Returnal does not surprise us, given the trend of the gaming market since the outbreak of the pandemic. In fact, there are many titles that have been announced in recent months but which have nevertheless been postponed for a few months, to allow developers to work better on their product.
However, the pandemic may not be the only reason that software houses are delaying games. The disastrous launch of Cyberpunk 2077, in fact, seems to have taught a hard lesson to the whole sector, which to date seems to be pondering its development policies well.
The postponement of Returnal was in fact preceded by that of many other titles: Halo Infinite, which was to be the flagship title of Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S will arrive at the end of 2021, while Hogwarts Legacy has even been postponed for a whole year.
