Turtle Rock Studios has announced that Back 4 Blood, the next big asymmetrical multiplayer game from the studio, has been delayed until later this year.
The somewhat spiritual success of the Left 4 Dead series was originally revealed some time ago. Then at The Game Awards 2020 Turtle Rock finally revealed a release date for the first-person shooter/zombie horror game.
Initially, it was intended to launch in Summer 2021, sometime around June. However, a statement from the developer on March 25, 2021 confirmed that the game has been pushed back until October 12, 2021.
Not the longest delay by any means, and certainly not the first game in 2021 to suffer from a delay. But none the less, it's bad news for fans of the studio's particular brand of shooter; which by all accounts was a big hit based on the reviews we read from the games Alpha playtest.
Why was Back 4 Blood delayed?
The studio relayed the news on the official Back 4 Blood Twitter account earlier today, writing:
"Turtle Rock Studios is working hard to make Back 4 Blood the best game it can possibly be at launch and the team needs more time to do this. Therefore, we will release Back 4 Blood on October 12, 2021. We thank our community for its continued support and are excited to share that there will be an open beta this summer."
Whilst the statement is fairly short, we'd wager a guess that the recent closed alpha - which began back in December 17, 2020 - revealed to the team that there was plenty more work to be done.
Coupled with the extra pressures of developing a game in this current climate of working from home and all the extra issues that arise from not having a full studio in one office, and it seems fairly reasonable to see why the game needed a bit more time to get ready for release.