Publishers and developers rarely go into any detail about why they delay a game. As with the previously reported delay of Grand Theft Auto V, they usually just give some vague comment that more time is needed to polish the game in question. It’s understandable that they don’t want to go into specifics, but for gamers eager to buy and play said game, it also can be somewhat frustrating to be told to wait months longer than expected without much of an explanation.
Which makes it all the more refreshing when a developer is completely honest and transparent with its fans. A developer like Two Tribes, who initially planned to release Toki Tori 2 for Wii U eShop on December 20th but decided to delay the game at the last minute. At the time of the delay announcement during the holiday season hustle and bustle, Two Tribes wasn’t too specific about why the game was being pushed back, other than to state that it just wasn’t “good enough to be released yet.” However, today the studio’s co-founder, Collin van Ginkel, who we interviewed about the game last fall, posted a blog outlining exactly why Toki Tori 2 needed more incubation time before hatching.
You can read the complete blogpost here, but to summarize, the main reason Toki Tori 2 didn’t make its initial launch target was because the game simply hadn’t been properly tested. That’s rather shocking to hear for a game that was mere days away from being certified and released. Collin also admits that they put too much pressure on themselves to rush the game out when, after reexamining the project, they remembered that they didn’t have a publisher enforcing a hard deadline. They could relax and really take the time to playtest the game and get proper feedback.
With the extra time, Two Tribes has already been able to address certain design nightmares relating to the game’s open-ended level structure, in addition to greatly improving the overall graphical detail and locking the game into 60 frames per second when performance had previously been poorly optimized at just 30 frames per second. Good to hear!
Game delays aren’t always easy to accept, but when you hear a story like this it puts everything into proper perspective. So, the next time a game’s release is pushed back, just remember that the game you’re eventually going to get is likely to be far better than the game you would have been playing had it launched months earlier.
Why we delayed Toki Tori 2 [Two Tribes]
Matt Litten is a 28 year old from-the-womb gamer turned video game reviewer/blogger and current editor/owner/operator of VGBlogger.com. Matt got his first taste of gaming as a youngster on the NES and Atari, and the rest is history from there.
In 2004, three years removed from high school and still looking for a career direction in life, Matt landed his first gig in the video game review business writing for the now-defunct website BonusStage.com. After the sad and untimely close of BonusStage, the former staff went on to found VGBlogger.com, and after a short stint as US Site Manager for AceGamez Matt turned his attention to VGBlogger, and to this day is dedicated to making it one of the top video game blogs in all the blogosphere.
Matt is a fair-minded reviewer and lover of games of all platforms and types, big or small, hyped or niche, big-budget or indie. But that doesn't mean he will let poor games slide without a good thrashing when necessary. 