2022 Will Bring More Game Delays and Hardware Shortages
Analysts predict that in 2022, the pandemic will continue to cause major delays in game development and further trouble with hardware availability.
- 2022 will have more game delays;
- Some of them will be motivated by the desire to avoid competition with other large projects;
- Companies will invest even more heavily in the long-term development of already released projects;
- Despite this, 2022 promises to be a very rich year in terms of launches and revenues;
- Supply of new consoles will be unable to meet the demand;
- PS5 and XSX sales, however, are expected to be high enough that games not released on last-gen should have no trouble earning their keep.
Analysts Daniel Ahmad and Benji-Sales, together with Windows Central, have prepared an interesting forecast for the gaming market. Their analysis shows that in 2022 we shouldn't expect timely game launches or the end of problems with console availability.
Therefore, we can expect a continuation of the trends of the last several months. The pandemic continues and many teams are struggling to regain their original output volume after switching to remote work. That's why analysts predict not only more delays, but also an increase in investment in smaller projects that can be developed in a shorter time, and above all a stronger emphasis on supporting already released games.
The latter efforts in particular are clrealy visible. Assassin's Creed: Valhalla will receive a third expansion, while the standard for several previous installments was two. Ubisoft has also decided to significantly extend support for Tom Clancy's The Division 2, which will receive a lot of new content next year. Halo Infinite will also be supported for a long time, and Electronic Arts has engaged additional studios to work on elements for Battlefield 2042.
There's a lot of big games coming out this year, but some of them were originally supposed to debut earlier, and some (e.g. Halo Infinite) even back in 2020. Another series of delays has created a promise for the beginning of 2022 to be exceptionally abundant. For example, February alone is set to see the release of Elden Ring, Dying Light 2, Horizon: Forbidden West, Sifu, The King of Fighters XV, Total War: Warhammer III, Destiny 2: The Witch Queen and GRID Legends, among other titles. Analysts predict that some of the upcoming games will be delayed not because they are unfinished, but to avoid too much competition.
Nevertheless, there are reasons for optimism. Developers are getting better at working remotely, and development processes in 2022 should run much more smoothly. In addition, even taking into account the possible delays, a whole lot of large projects will hit the market in the next twelve months, so the next year is very promising in terms of industry revenues.
Things look worse with hardware. The new consoles are selling well, but the supply will not meet the demand, because the problems with component shortages will probably last at least until 2023. Despite this, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S sell well enough that games developed exclusively for these hardware platforms should have no problem achieving adequate financial results. Therefore, in 2022 we will observe a departure from creating games simultaneously for the new and last generation of consoles. Such productions will still be created, especially in the case of sports games. It is possible that the next year's instalment of the Call of Duty will choose a similar strategy.
