It's no secret that February 2022 is going to be a big time for the games industry, with several of the year's biggest releases including Horizon Forbidden West, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen, and Elden Ring slated to launch in the same month. This has caused a growing sense of stress for gaming enthusiasts who are looking forward to multiple titles that are releasing at that time, as many of the games will have large worlds that will take players tens of hours, if not hundreds to explore and complete. While it's only natural to be worried about having the time to play everything, it's important to note that, February's release calendar might end up looking very different when the month actually arrives.
When looking at how things have gone in the industry as of late, it's easy to picture incoming delays for titles that seem rock solid, and smaller games might shift their dates around to account for the massively anticipated releases like Elden Ring and Horizon Forbidden West. This isn't to say that any release dates are guaranteed to change, but when looking at what's to come based on what's already passed, the possibility for some adjustments is certainly there.
The Fear of Gaming Competition
In February, these highly anticipated games are all scheduled for release: Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Sifu, Dying Light 2 Stay Human, Horizon Forbidden West, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Elden Ring, Dragon Quest X Offline, and Gran Turismo 7. Even if someone were to only want to play a handful of these games, they're all big enough to warrant being played over an entire month by themselves, so gaming enthusiasts have some big choices to make about how they're going to be spending their time when the releases start ramping up.
It's for this reason that it makes sense for some of the smaller titles to start shifting their dates away from the biggest releases. Today, Sifu announced that it would be moving its release date up by two weeks from February 22 to February 8. Obviously, not all games are in a position to be able to play with their release dates so easily, though if a smaller title like Sifu wants to be a major part of the gaming conversation when it releases, then a date further away from both Horizon Forbidden West and Elden Ring will be advantageous to it. Sifu and Dying Light 2, while highly anticipated releases, don't have the same levels of hype that bigger releases have, so it's a good thing for them to thread the needle between releases like Pokemon Legends: Arceus and the big hitters of late February.
The Strength of Delays
It's also not a bad idea for some of the titles slotted for release to consider delaying into a different month to avoid competition and spend the additional time polishing the game and getting it ready for release. Delaying a title is much easier said than done and is a decision that doesn't come lightly, but earlier this week, Saints Row delayed itself out of the February window into August. While a delay that long might mean that there are other developmental factors impacting its release, getting out of a window where much larger games are releasing might do well for other titles in the February window.
While smaller games could benefit from delays, the largest titles might also decide that they need to have more time in development before releasing. Both Horizon Forbidden West and Elden Ring have been delayed at least once, and there's nothing to say that they can't be delayed again. Obviously, that would come at the cost of fan excitement, but as the industry has recently seen with titles like Halo Infinite, delays can result in better products overall and should always be considered if a game isn't ready yet.
Elden Ring is set to release on February 25 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.