In the process of writing this issue’s cover story we didn’t ask Techland’s Tymon Smektała how much stock he places in Shigeru Miyamoto’s crusty old declaration that a delayed game will eventually be good, while a rushed game will be bad forever. Nowadays, isn’t it more fashionable to launch a game with the intention of overhauling it entirely over time anyway, whether that’s through refinements, season updates, DLC or beyond? It’s an especially relevant point for Techland, which has spent the past five years adding bits to Dying Light, a process that’s helped to retain an active playerbase that even now outnumbers that of most new releases.
With all of the challenges facing studios in 2021, it’s easier to imagine modern game development being driven by a much older contention – that perfect is the enemy of good. And yet in September came news of another delay for Dying Light 2, pushing its release into next year. For Smektała and his colleagues, that first impression really matters. The response to Cyberpunk 2077’s launch is still resonating nine months later.