The spate of pandemic-induced game delays is continuing into 2021, with the release of PS5 exclusive Returnal requiring a further six weeks to perfect.
The first-party title, developed by Housemarque Games, was due to arrive on March 19, but now PS5 owners will have to wait until the last day in April to enjoy the sci-fi third-person shooter.
In a tweet from the PlayStation account, Sony trotted out the now-familiar line of wanting to ensure players get the quality they expect. As such, the new release date for the upcoming PS5 game is April 30.
Returnal offers plenty of promise with the plot centred around a female protagonist Selene, who has crash-landed on a shape-shifting planet. The plot has shades of The End Of Tomorrow movie (starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt), in that Selene has to restart her quest armed with new knowledge every time she dies.
“Through relentless roguelike gameplay, you’ll discover that just as the planet changes with every cycle, so do the items at your disposal,” the game’s description reads. “Every loop offers new combinations, forcing you to push your boundaries and approach combat with a different strategy each time.”
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
It’s the latest in a slew of PS5 games to suffer a delay a delay. The likes of Deathloop, Dyling Light 2, Far Cry 6, Hogwarts Legacy, Outriders, the Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time remake from Ubisoft and Rainbow Six: Quarantine are all requiring more time to perfect in the eyes of Sony and the various developers. Sony also chose to delay a launch title, Destruction AllStars, which it is now giving away free with PlayStation Plus in February.
Those delays come after lengthy hold-ups for Cyberpunk 2077 (although CD Projekt Red might be wishing they’d delayed a little longer), The Last of Us 2 and, of course, the supposed Xbox Series X launch headliner Halo Infinite.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
