As a part of its second-quarter earnings announcement today, Take-Two Interactive announced that Firaxis' upcoming Marvel strategy game, Marvel's Midnight Suns, is being delayed into the second half of next year.
This isn't a massive bump as the Midnight Suns was previously planned for March 2022. Now, it's looking at somewhere between July and December of that year. In a press release, the company implied that the delay was connected at least in part to increases in the difficulty of making games as technology has improved.
As it becomes possible to make bigger and more technologically interesting games, those games are also tougher and take longer to make.
"While we don’t take delays lightly, we know that our proven success has been rooted firmly in our 'player-first' approach and unwavering commitment to delivering the highest quality entertainment experiences," reads the press release. "We believe it is far better to provide the extra time needed for a product – especially a new IP – to reach its full potential and drive long-term success as a permanent franchise in our industry-leading portfolio."
Firaxis' Twitter account provided a similar statement moments prior:
We have an important development update to share with our fans pic.twitter.com/ycNDCVtbwD
— Marvel's Midnight Suns (@midnightsuns) November 3, 2021
In a conversation with IGN, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick added a bit more detail about why Take-Two, 2K, and Firaxis opted for the delay:
"We think it needs more development time to be everything it can be," he said. "What we're known for doing is supplying the time and the resources so that the creative talent that's taken a big chance by coming to work at our company always has not only the ability to pursue their passions but every possible asset in service of allowing them to pursue their passions, and that's what generates the highest-quality titles in the business, for which we're known.
"We couldn't be more excited about the title. We don't love when we have to slip a title. It's not that common for us; it's been very uncommon in past years. This is a situation where we thought it made sense, and therefore we stand behind it."
Notably, despite Midnight Suns moving out of Take-Two's current fiscal year and into the next one, the company actually raised its projections for this year from between $3.2 billion and $3.3 billion in net bookings to between $3.3 billion and $3.4 billion, in part thanks to its second-quarter net bookings of $985 million – well above its expectations.
Marvel's Midnight Suns was revealed back in August, playing into Firaxis' strategy game strengths as a tactical XCOM-like with a customizable protagonist fighting alongside superpowered heroes like Iron Man, Captain Marvel, and Wolverine against large numbers of enemies. It will include destructible environments, but no permadeath like in the XCOM series.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
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