Square Enix have delayed Forspoken's launch by four months
Open-world adventure now expected in October
Square Enix this week announced a four-and-a-bit-month delay for Forspoken, the open-world action-adventure game about a New Yorker pulled into a fantasy world. Previously due on the 24th of May, it's now slated for the 11th of October. Sounds like Squeenix hope to make it the start of a new series, so they're taking time to help ensure it's proper good. Fair enough.
Formerly know as Project Athia, Forspoken is an open-world game starring Frey Holland, a New Yorker who's harmlessly walkin' heah when she's pulled into a fantasy world full of dragons and wizards who need a kicking. Also she gets some neat-looking movement abilities to zip about. It's the first game from Square Enix's Luminous Productions, a studio formed largely of former Final Fantasy XV folks. Seems they want more time to deliver the sort of game you might expect from a team like that.
"Our vision for this exciting new IP is to deliver a game world and hero that gamers across the globe will want to experience for years to come, so getting it right is important to us," they said in Monday's announcement. "To that end, during the next few months we will focus all our efforts on polishing the game and can't wait for you to experience Frey's journey this fall."
Better a late game than a bad game.
While this decision may well have been brewing for some time, I imagine Square Enix might be extra-cautious after launching Babylon's Fall last week. The latest game from PlatinumGames, which Squeenix published, seems to have flopped hard, with barely 1100 concurrent players on Steam at its peak the first weekend after launch. Our Babylon's Fall review said it's "a confusing jumble of an online action-RPG that's mired in unrewarding activities and loot." Not the sort of situation you want to repeat when hoping to launch a whole new series without that money-making Final Fantasy name.
Forspoken is headed to Steam, Epic, and the Microsoft Store on the 11th of October, as well as PlayStation 5. It'll cost £65/€80/$70 and oh my, it'll need to be amazing for the general game-buying public to get comfortable with that price.
We've called Forspoken one of our most anticipated games of 2022. But £65! Goodness me.