Numerous, large-scale gaming events, and even relatively smaller ones, have had to be canceled in response to the coronavirus. It has also resulted in some of the year's biggest films having to be delayed, including Disney's Mulan and the production on Robert Pattinson Batman movie. And now one major movie delay has apparently resulted in the same thing happening to this year's Fast and Furious: Crossroads game.
A few days ago, it was confirmed that the next installment in the Vin Diesel movie series, Fast and Furious 9, would have its release be delayed by almost a whole year. Originally intended to release this May, it has been pushed back to April 2021.
Fast and Furious: Crossroads, an original title that sees both Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez reprising their roles, was revealed at The Game Awards 2019 and was also intended to release in May alongside the new movie. Despite not technically being a movie tie-in, it makes sense to have it accompany the film as that would be improve its sales dramatically compared to if it released six months later.
However, with the movie's drastic delay, it's looking like Crossroads will meet the same fate. Developer Codemasters (the studio behind racing series like Grid and Formula One) shared a statement that "timing for the launch of the game is now uncertain." While not an outright confirmation, it does sound like it won't be meeting its original release date.
We can expect to hear something from either Codemasters or publisher Bandia Namco sometime soon, as the statement reads "A further announcement will be made in due course to confirm the release date of the F&F game, following discussions with Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe and Universal Games and Digital Platforms."
At the very least, the hope seems to be that it'll release during the first quarter of the 2021 fiscal year (October - December of this year), but there is no guarantee this will happen.
Elsewhere, it's looking as if the coronavirus will affect the release of the next generation of consoles as well, with a new report stating that the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X could very well be pushed back to 2021.
Fast and Furious: Crossroads will release on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Source: Codemasters Group Holdings