Regardless of how you feel about CD Projekt RED delaying Cyberpunk 2077 again, it’s incredible how the game’s release is impacting others. Take Rockfish Games’ Everspace 2 whose early access launch was delayed to December to avoid contending with the FPS/RPG. Thanks to the latter now releasing in December, Everspace 2 early access will now launch in January 2021.
Providing an update on Kickstarter, the developer said that, “Let’s get the cyber elephant out of the room right away: The Cyberpunk 2077 release has just been pushed back to December 10, which is a major blow to our planned Everspace 2 Early Access release in mid-December. Not only will every media outlet and content creator cover the arguably most-anticipated AAA game in history throughout the entire holiday season (and not much else), we also know that there’s quite a bit of audience overlap within our community (and our team).”
In a follow-up email to PC Gamer, Rockfish stated that, “We are aware that Everspace 2 fans will be unhappy, but competing with the arguably most anticipated video game in history is just not a good idea.” In the meantime, closed beta keys will be going out on November 2nd to backers who pledged €30 or higher. Once early access goes live, new keys will be provided to replace them.
This trend of delaying one’s game avoid competition with Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t anything too new. Grinding Gear Games also recently announced that its next end-game expansion for Path of Exile would launch in January 2021 to avoid forcing players to choose between both releases. Perhaps Ubisoft may consider delaying Immortals: Fenyx Rising, which is out on December 3rd, to a later date? Time will tell so stay tuned.
