In recent years, Xbox Game Pass has been flooded with tons of new games, including popular titles from Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, and additional perks for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. One upcoming Xbox Game Pass day one title that's been confirmed during a big showcase event has been hit with a delay that pushes it to a later 2022 launch.
During the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase event earlier this year, several games were unveiled for the first time while others received new reveals, DLC trailers, and more. One of the new games confirmed during this showcase was the vibrantly colorful High On Life from Squanch Games, a space-faring FPS adventure that draws inspiration from Rick and Morty and is fittingly conceived by Justin Roiland. Although High On Life is still set to release by the end of 2022, Squanch Games has delayed it for further optimization of bugs.
In a recent Twitter announcement, Squanch Games stated that High On Life will be delayed about six weeks in order to "squash some bugs," referencing a lot of the game's enemies shown during the reveal trailer. The good news shared by the development studio in the aforementioned tweet confirmed that High On Life will be released on December 13, which still doesn't leave players with much time to wait for the new Justin Roiland creation. Included with the delay announcement, Squanch Games also shared a strange animation called "Dating Ad" that has comedic talking characters like the guns in High On Life, but it swaps the more realistic 3D visuals of the game for a more cartoonish approach.
The Dating Ad animation shows a father and son who both try to explain why someone should marry the younger of the two, pointing to features and benefits like measuring in at 62 inches and not leaving rotten surprises around the house. The comedic short video shares some similarities with Rick and Morty which is set to enter its sixth season in September, setting up the humor for the December release of High On Life. Given that High On Life is an Xbox Game Pass day one title and that it can be played through Xbox Cloud Gaming, subscribers will get quick access to the Squanch Games title on December 13
Although some High On Life fans expressed dismay about the delay to the game, others told Squanch Games to take as long as they needed to make the game that they set out to develop. One High On Life fan suggested the team show some more gameplay than what's already been unveiled because of this push to later in 2022, while another worried about a launch that's too close to God of War: Ragnarok's release even with the day one Xbox Game Pass treatment.
High on Life will release on PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on December 13.