In today’s edition of ‘Colour me disappointed but not that surprised’ we have the news that Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End is to be launched two weeks after the most recently proposed launch date. Which itself was a few weeks after the launch date set before that. Which was….. anyways, you get the picture: Uncharted 4 – delayed again.
I don’t suppose there’ll be many people who will have been overly shocked by the announcement either, and it’s certainly becoming something of recurring theme with Uncharted 4. You may’ve even noticed a subtle shift in coverage of the game’s release, with phrases like ‘expected’, ‘proposed’, ‘most recent’ preceding the words “release date”, immediately followed by mutterings of ‘fingers crossed’, ‘pleeeease’ and ‘don’t you dare, Naughty Dog, don’t you fucking dare…. ‘. Fat lot of good it did, mind, because they dared alright, with yet another fortnight of impending desperation piled upon some, quite frankly, already ridiculously desperate fans.
However, as hard as it might be to see it, there’s a glimmer of hope contained in the latest announcement. See, the statement on PlayStation’s Blog reads as follows:
As you know, Naughty Dog is wrapping up production on Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End with the game on track to go gold and into production later this month. In an effort to meet the considerable worldwide demand, and to ensure that all gamers worldwide have the opportunity to play the game on day one, we have chosen to postpone the launch of the game by two weeks to allow for extra manufacturing time.
Therefore, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End has a new worldwide release date of May 10, 2016.
We know this news might be disappointing [Might? Might be disappointing? Are you having a fucking laugh!?]*, and we are sorry to have to make you wait a little longer to play Naughty Dog’s latest. The good news is that the game is phenomenal — we are fully confident that it will be worth the wait and the team at Naughty Dog is eager as ever for you to experience Nathan Drake’s final adventure.
We thank you for your continued support for PlayStation.
(*Swearing mine – did not appear in the original)
….and that would suggest (unless they’re fucking lying) that this is merely a manufacturing/demand issue, rather than a delay (or expected delay) in the product/content. I mean, that’s something, right? Also, that whole “phenomenal” thing sounds promising, even taking it with a big old ‘marketing hype’ grain of salt!
Either way, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End now has an (expected) release date of May 10, 2016 (fingers crossed).
QTX 
March 2, 2016 at 4:02 pm
Uh-oh, is Uncharted 4 the new Mighty No. 9? Then again, I do have to say that it’s probably a better sign that a AAA title is doing this because that probably means they’re ironing out bugs. I know I don’t like being an unpaid beta tester.
Also, “the game is phenomenal”? I’d say an unreleased game is like Schrödinger’s cat in that it exists in a state where it’s good, bad, and average at the same time (or alternatively, none of those things at all). Which one it ends up being is determined when the game can actually be experienced by people outside of those who created it.
I forget because I didn’t play it until a few months after it was released, but was The Last of Us pushed back a few times before it actually came out? I don’t remember.
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March 2, 2016 at 4:23 pm
I think TLoU was pushed back about 5 weeks. And yeah, I’m definitely with you on the ironing bugs out thing, and buying a game that doesn’t yet work really, really pisses me off. I’m therefore more forgiving of delays, given the alternative – and it’s certainly the least bad option as far as I’m concerned.
Also agree on the “hype” thing (I like the Schrödinger analogy, BTW), but given the delays, expectations etc, I also think they’d perhaps be wary of overselling it, so it’s something to be cautiously optimistic about. Hopefully. Like you say, well just have to wait and see, and ultimately judge for ourselves. Eventually. 😉
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March 2, 2016 at 4:45 pm
Considering the tune the AAA industry has been dancing to this decade, there’s a good chance that getting games on release date is becoming less of a financially sound move. You pay full price for a game that might not be free of bugs. This isn’t to say it wasn’t a problem back in the nineties, but patching was (mostly) only an option for PC developers, and I think the competent console developers knew this, so they really made sure to playtest their games – otherwise, they’d be hearing about their failure to do so in various publications and would never live it down. It seems as though in most cases, it’s best just to not buy into the hype and wait until a game depreciates in value. With more titles being released in a digital format, it’s becoming less of a gamble, as you don’t have to worry about not finding a game if copies stop being made.
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March 2, 2016 at 4:56 pm
Yeah, and it’s funny because Games are one of the few mediums that can get away with this shite. Can you imagine if you bought a blu-ray or CD (yeah, I know, but I’m old…), got them home, but couldn’t use them until you got sent an update!? Everybody would totes lose their shit, but it’s pretty much taken for granted with games.
I appreciate that games can be so huge that it’s not always possible to find every bug or issue, but I think too often Release Dates are given way too much importance, and certainly more than, say, quality control or consumer rights/satisfaction.
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March 2, 2016 at 5:20 pm
To be fair, as you hinted at, human interaction makes that notion much trickier. You have to account for every single action the player might take no matter how obscure or off-the-wall they can get. It’s not like a movie where the only way to experience it is to watch it. I get what you mean though, in any other medium, nobody would tolerate that and rightly so.
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