Delays are fine, but dev hell is another thing...

Oh yeah, you all can guess what fired up this topic. Its not one I'm actually too passionate about, but it just got me thinking... when do we draw the line from delay to "what the fudge-ripple sundae guys!? Come on!" At some point a game being delayed, or disappearing from the news stops being a delay and more of a game entering developer hell. This includes games like Half-life 3 (or HL2, episode 3), The Last Guardian, DNF prior to its release, and Capcom is earning its way to having Deep Down become yet another case. There's more than I mentioned, and even some if-ish examples, like whatever is going on with Beyond Good & Evil 2. In recent times, we've been told that TLG was getting yet another delay. Its short at least, still set to be this year, but dang is it a bit disheartening to know it was once again tossed as a later project. Truth is it wont be out until its actually freakin' out, and until the day comes when you can put it in your system and play it, it will be made fun of and mocked for whatever delay is thrown at it no matter how short because it has taken this damn long. Some have even latched onto a similar old promise for a 2011 holiday release.

However on the other hand, I wont dare criticize delays. Again I'm not even passionate or angry about this case. I do however hope this means they wont dare raise a day 1 patch considering a near decade of work, plus a delay for bugs even after all this time, but that sadly is just wishful thinking. Still I'm glad they're polishing whatever it is they still managed to find as a bug. We have a ton of games out there, and you should be well occupied without losing your mind over a small two month-ish delay. Plenty more coming up as well, I've got my eyes set specifically for Tomb Raider and Dishonored 2, but there's also the trio of major online shooters like Battlefield 1, TitanFall 2, and COD if you weren't already still busy with stuff like Doom, Overwatch, the revamped Evolve, or the underdog Battleborn. There's a lot of good stuff to play out there right now, go have some fun. However the thing is this isn't just another delay, and I think it partially speaks for itself with how little people discussed this upcoming gem. They never exactly believed it was releasing on time, so there was no hype. Likewise, there was no communication, which is a huge part of where we really have a problem with these games that get thrown into development hell. Its even in the wikipedia article, appropriately heading the section for "reaction to development delays".

"Because of the development delays in The Last Guardian and lack of updates from Sony, The Last Guardian was considered to have been in development hell over its eight-year development period"

Top-tier communication, right guys?

The lack of updates from sony. Yup, that summarizes it perfectly. To look at another recent example, people aren't worried about Deep Down suddenly because its simply delayed; They're worried about it because it was flaunted, got people excited, had some news, then fell off the face of the earth for over a year. Likewise Half-life 2 episode 3 was supposed to be out quickly. Episode 2 left on a cliff-hangar, leaving people ready for the next episode. Years later we don't even remember it as an episode, we just meshed it together as expecting a whole damn new game, because it had to take a while for some reason... right? Right? Well there's absolutely no clue that the game even exists beyond just the mere cliff-hangar ending. Its not progressing, bug fixes, in beta, or teased at E3, it just plain does not exist to the best of the public's knowledge. Its basically gaming's cryptozoology department, complete with conspiracy theory memes, wild hopes, and fake pictures. However if you had asked earlier, you'd have been given this nice sounding statement on the 3rd episode:

"In an interview with Eurogamer, Gabe Newell revealed that the Half-Life 2 "episodes" are essentially Half-Life 3. He reasons that rather than force fans to wait another six years for a full sequel, Valve Corporation would release the game in episodic installments."

Yeah, bet you didn't know that guys. The entire purpose of there even being episodes 1-3 (or rather 2 because 3 didn't happen) is to keep things at a steady, nice, and streamlined rate. Could have fooled me! Quick, somebody tell Activision about this genius plan so they can put COD out faster! Okay I'm done with sarcasm. At least with Duke Nukem Forever, which funnily enough released, we eventually knew what made that get stuck in dev hell. The guy in charge was an arrogant copycat that wanted to add every single cool thing, and new technology, into his game to be the be all end all product. That helps explain why it had to keep getting engine changes, delays, reworks, and was such a confused product in its game design. Now we're here supposedly a few months away from release for the ambitious game TLG, and... we just have to guess. We don't even have much real legit trailer footage to work with, we're just told its coming soon, and Sony pretends nothing weird happened with it. No wonder people are upset. I almost want it to come out so we can hear more transparency or speculations for ourselves on what its like.

Its like, a conspiracy, maaaan!

This routine of no communication isn't just sloppy, and frustrating, but also sketch. If TLGwas delayed because of director related issues, or the team went out on a hiatus for 2 years, that's totally fine and I'm glad they were honest about it. Bands do that quite a few times, and the newest R&C had an admitted on/off work cycle for the 2 years it was done, so... why can't they tell us what happened? Again, we even knew of DNF's issues before it launched, and were still somehow hyped about it before we found out it was garbage. But just saying nothing... it looks bad. I'd also say it looks bad for marketing, because you're giving us a tease for a game that was never close to ready. Bethesda nailed it with their launch approach to Fallout 4. Come out fast and hard with just the right push for marketing months ahead of preparations. However even Watch Dogs, and No Man's Sky managed to release even under distant circumstances of reveal-to-launch. Niether game was great, but they showed up, and actually did their job. Those are huge games to, whereas TLG is more on the level of R&C, or like a smaller campaign only The Last of Us. We're talking about a puzzle adventure game that's maybe around 7 or so hours. I respect that team ico lovingly crafts and polishes their work, so lets be generous and say they take an extra year long than most. Its still way too damn long, and there's still no explanation for this game.

Again, I'm not mad, or booing the delay. I just think there's a fine line between delaying your game a few times, and having it disappear for a long time without any communication (and just working at a believable rate). At these situations can be handled way better from multiple angles. Communicate, reveal games at a smart time, and make the release count. Say what you want about No Man's Sky, but at least it got out, and some people are enjoying it, and that's more than could be said about Sasquatch-life 3. But we wouldn't be looking at stuff like that so mysteriously, or weirdly, or skeptical, if we actually had a reason to believe in it. At the very least,  hope this recent delay is the last, and we get the game some people are really hoping for. Its not my thing and I'll probably wait on a sale, or maybe ask for it as a gift, but I'm still hoping it turns out great for the people that want it.