Why was Ghostwire: Tokyo delayed?
Unlike The Evil Within survival-horror games, Shinji Mikami’s next IP will be more of an action-adventure title with horror elements. Ghostwire: Tokyo was initially scheduled to release before the end of 2021. However, according to the game’s Twitter account, it won’t arrive until early 2022.
— Ghostwire: Tokyo (@playGhostwire) July 13, 2021 As you can read from the statement above, the studio is delaying Ghostwire: Tokyo to give the development team more time to rest while working on it. Although it was not explicitly mentioned, this might have something to do with the recent controversies concerning the prevalent crunch culture in the video game industry. Having said that, an announcement from Tango Gameworks was bound to come soon, albeit not about a delay. Fans have been wondering for months if Ghostwire will also release on the Xbox Series S/X following Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media. For the unaware, Tango Gameworks is a company owned by ZeniMax Media. However, Microsoft did confirm that it will continue to honor the exclusivity deals signed by the studios it had acquired. Now that Arkane Studios’ Deathloop has been confirmed as a timed exclusive, it’s probably only a matter of time before Ghostwire joins it. Who knows? In addition to an Xbox Series S/X release, Sony or Tango Gameworks might just announce Ghostwire: Tokyo as a PS4 title as well, similar to Gran Turismo 7 and the next God of War. Speaking of the delay, it’s nice to see a studio announce that it is concerned about the well-being of its team. Amazingly, the decision has not been met with backlash. A few years ago, a delay like this would have generated a lot of negative comments. Back then, most audiences were not as aware of the poor working conditions within the video game industry. Now that this is no longer the case, we can expect studios to be more open to delaying their games. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it bodes well for the quality of the games once they are launched. It seems like the video game industry will forever be changed by the ongoing fallout from Cyberpunk 2077. If this announcement has left you with a Ghostwire-sized itch, don’t worry. There are plenty of horror titles to play right now. You can check out our rankings of the best Resident Evil games in case you want to see where Shinji Mikami’s original works stack up after leaving Capcom back in 2010. You may also want to see our round-up of the best horror games that are not named Resident Evil.
