'Cuphead' and its deal with the devil pushed into 2017
It's the latest in a string of high-profile indie games not making their promised release date.
Chalk up another high-profile indie game being delayed. This time it's Cuphead, the platformer styled after 1930's animation (think: Steamboat Willie and Betty Boop). The Steam and Xbox game was scheduled for a 2016 release, but that simply isn't feasible anymore according to developer StudioMDHR. "We wanted to finish our game 80 years after 1936 but it will now be 81," a blog post reads. "Throughout this year we discussed reducing the scope to make a 2016 release, but we made the difficult decision to delay the launch in order to ship with our vision intact."
Now, the team is targeting a mid 2017 release window. This isn't the first time Cuphead has been delayed, either. When the hand-drawn game made its public debut back in January 2014, the developers were eyeing a "late 2014" street date for the PC version. But, at E3 that year the game was part of the Xbox presentation, along with a delay to 2015. We saw a bit more last year, with news that it'd become a full-on platformer as opposed to just a retro run-n-gun akin to Konami's classic Contra.
And that news came with word of another setback. "In development, time is our greatest asset, and pushing the release to 2016 allows us to make for [sic] the best game possible." Fans have wondered what's been going on with the game since. Which brings us back to the latest postponement.
"We are constantly humbled by your continued support," developer Chad Moldenhauer writes today. "Love you all and can't wait to get this to you. Without further ado, we will get back to work!"
Cuphead isn't the only indie that's had a delay this year. We're living in a post-No Man's Sky world now, and rather than release something that doesn't live up to expectations, developers are keen to keep their projects in the oven longer. Games like Below, Tacoma and the ever-ambitious Star Citizen's single-player campaign Squadron 42 have all been pushed out of this year or delayed indefinitely. That's to say nothing of a few recent Kickstarter projects.
Remember what Nintendo mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto said, though: "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."
