Cyberpunk 2077
For the third time this year, Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed, this time from November 19 to December 10, 2020.
This takes a lot of pressure off of a good many releases that week, which also welcomes the launch of PS5 and Xbox Series X, including Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Destiny 2: Beyond Light, Spider-Man Miles Morales, Godfall and Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War, among others.
Moving to December 10 is good news for all those games, but is there anything it’s bad news for in that release window?
Possibly a few games, but not to the same extent, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some jockeying around in these final weeks as every looks to get out of Cyberpunk’s way.
Immortals
Immortals Fenyx Rising (December 3)
This is a new Ubisoft IP which blends Breath of the Wild visuals with Greek mythology, and is a pretty sprawling release across PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series X/S, PC and Stadia. And instead of coming out two weeks after Cyberpunk, it’s now coming out a week before it, which could be less breathing room. It might end up sandwiched in between all the games people are still playing from November and then Cyberpunk a week later. Not to say it’s doomed or anything, but it’s certainly a very precarious position.
FIFA 21/Madden NFL 21 (December 4)
Cyberpunk is now a whole lot closer to these two powerhouses, but are they actually in danger? I mean, no. These two games exist on their own plane, and especially in a year where new consoles are launching, I think the dedicated fanbases of each will have no problem picking these up here and playing them all through December, even if there is some overlap for those who want to take breaks for some Cyberpunk. If there’s any kind of series you’d be okay with launching close to Cyberpunk, its probably auto-buy sports titles.
The Medium
The Medium (December 10)
Uh oh. Well, this one certainly isn’t good. With Halo Infinite delayed indefinitely, The Medium represents one of the only Xbox Series X/S console exclusives coming out during the immediate launch window of the new hardware. It’s a true next-gen game as we’ve seen how it splits its entire game world in half with some impressive tech, but launching on the same day as Cyberpunk instead of weeks after it will put it in a very difficult position indeed. This seems like a game that may end up scooting its release date to avoid the Cyberpunk freight train, just so it’s not completely drowned out with a same-day launch. But no news on that front yet.
These are really the only major games that came to mind. As you can see, overall this move works out well for mostly everyone, given that Cyberpunk gives all the November games some room to breathe (though they still have to compete against each other). And Cyberpunk gets an entire holiday month mostly to itself, provided there is not some final delay that finally sends it stumbling into 2021, which does seem like it should not be ruled out at this point, given what’s been happening.
Follow me on Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels Herokiller and Herokiller 2, and read my first series, The Earthborn Trilogy, which is also on audiobook.
