In a week (month? year?) when lots of people are feeling pretty sour over the way some game companies choose to explain their decisions to their audience, here’s a rarity — a game delay statement that shows such humility, honesty, and passion for the medium that it’s gone over extremely well.
The statement comes from Evil Empire, theDead Cells developer now making a roguelike Prince of Persia game for Ubisoft — and the reason for the delay, as Evil Empire humbly admits, is this week’s surprise early access release of Hades 2, the hotly anticipated sequel to a roguelike classic.
Rogue Prince of Persia had been set for release next week, on May 14 (also in early access, on PC). Evil Empire says the game will still be released in May, and it will announce a new release date on Monday, May 13.
It’s a smart decision, but what’s really striking is the generosity and candor with which Evil Empire has framed its decision — as well as its cheeky use of the yellow-box format (much-memed during Cyberpunk 2077’s tortuous journey to release, and beyond).
So we've got a little bit of news about The Rogue Prince of Persia, it's all in the big yellow box https://t.co/S3FiyGFfrY pic.twitter.com/9PXlw4J2MZ “Seeing as everyone and their mum is playing [Hades 2] (including our entire team… and their mums), we have decided to let people have their fun with it before we release The Rogue Prince of Persia,” Evil Empire posted. “While we have every confidence in The Rogue Prince of Persia, it’s not every day that a game in the same genre as you, which is one of the most anticipated upcoming games of 2024, will release into Early Access a week before you plan to do the same.