Square Enix announces game delays due to COVID during earnings report

What you need to know

• Square Enix has reported its financial results for the past six months.
• The company noted that the pandemic has impacted the development cycle of upcoming games.
• As a result, some of these titles are being delayed into fiscal year 2022 or 2023 — or beyond.

Today, Square Enix shared its financial results for the past six months ending September 30, 2020. As part of this report, the company noted that there has been "Impact on the development timelines for our new titles owing to disruptions to the work of outsourcers that we contract for a portion of our development efforts," which has been caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

As a result, the company is taking another look at its development roadmap and some games are being delayed into fiscal year 2022, 2023 or beyond. Which titles are being delayed though, is something that remains unknown. Right now, Square Enix has People Can Fly's co-op RPG Outriders set to release on February 2, 2021, with NieR Replicant coming on April 23.

Beyond that, Square Enix has Project Athia and Final Fantasy 16, both of which are timed PS5 console exclusives without release dates. Square Enix is likely referring to at least some of these titles, though these would naturally be internal delays without public dates for now.

The next-generation upgrade for Marvel's Avengers was previously delayed, with the development team citing a need to fix bugs and further polish the experience.