Those of you looking forward to playing Star Fox Zero later this year will have to wait until 2016, as the game’s designer, Shigeru Miyamoto took to Facebook today to announce that he’s delaying the game from its expected November release date this year until next year.
Miyamoto posted a detailed explanation of why he arrived at this decision, which seems to address some of the concerns expressed by fans earlier this year when the game was revealed at E3. Miyamoto admits that the team could technically release the game this year as gameplay is finished, but he feels it lacks the polish necessary to be received well. For the record, this is the same thing he said when Pikmin 3 was delayed several times as well.
I made a big decision last week.
We have been developing Star Fox Zero for Wii U with the aim of releasing it this year. Although we felt that the development had been progressing well, we now believe that we will need a little more time to work on areas such as the unprecedented discovery that we want players to experience in the game by using two screens, and further polishing the level designs and perfecting the tone of the cut scenes.
While we have already reached the stage where it would be technically possible to release the title in time for the year-end holiday season, we want to polish the game a bit more so that players will be able to more smoothly grasp the new style of play that we are proposing.
To the people looking forward to the launch of the game this holiday season, I am very sorry.
Star Fox Zero is going to bring new game play and experiences that take it far beyond the framework established by Star Fox 64. All the members of the development team are doing our best so that the final product will not betray your expectations. And the game will not be delayed for a very long time – we’re aiming to launch the game in Q1 2016. Please stay tuned for further announcements.
Miyamoto’s personal apology is obviously one issued because he knows fans of the game are going to be highly upset at the delay. Given that Star Fox Zero was the biggest reveal for the Wii U this year at E3 and now it’s not coming until next year, the Wii U’s holiday catalogue is looking pretty sparse again.
What do you think about the delay? Are you upset at all?
