'LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga' Delayed Again
TT Games, the current creative force behind the upcoming LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, took to Twitter and announced that the game, which was previously slated for release this spring, will be delayed to an unknown time due to unspecified issues with its development.
Although Lego Star Wars games have previously been released covering all of the Star Wars saga movies from Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace through Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (with the latter release only as a standalone game), this will be the first one to feature the entire nine-movie core Star Wars saga, which now also includes Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi and Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker.
The last major compilation of Lego Star Wars games included the first six movies, from Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace through Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, at a time prior to even the knowledge that more movies in the Skywalker saga would be forthcoming. Prior to that, the Lego Star Wars games were originally packaged as separate prequel trilogy and, later, original trilogy collections. Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released in 2016, shortly after the film on which it is based, and has been the only sequel trilogy-era game released to date for unknown reasons. However, this newest release will correct that, albeit as part of a combined package that includes all of them instead of separate movie releases.
As mentioned above, TT Games did not give a specific reason for the delay other than to say that they believe that more time would be needed in order to make the "biggest and best" game possible. What that means exactly is unclear. However, it is certainly not the only anticipated game on the roster to have been delayed in the last year. The list also includes the open-world Hogwarts Legacy game and Gotham Knights. It is heavily speculated, and probably correctly, that the developmental delays may be the result of ongoing difficulties associated with COVID-19.
To absolutely nobody's surprise, I am a hardcore Star Wars fan, and, as somebody who played with Legos a lot as a kid (and building them even as an adult), the pairing of Star Wars and Legos has been somewhat of a perfect marriage of franchises. I have played through and achieved 100% completion (all levels, characters, trophies) on all of the previous Lego Star Wars releases, including Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which, in addition to the main story, also includes some unlockable bonus levels that actually expand the original movie story. I was hoping for a while that we would get standalone releases for Star Wars: Episode VII - The Last Jedi and Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker and was perplexed that nothing was ever announced for them.
Fortunately, I was very excited to find out last year that TT Games would be doing a new and even larger compilation of the Skywalker saga for all nine movies, and I eagerly put in my pre-order back in May 2020, expecting that it would be released sometime later in the year, which, of course, did not happen. Amazon has had a "placeholder date" for its release as December 31, 2021 up on my order status for quite some time. The announcement by TT Games was the first official acknowledgement that a longer wait was in store for it.
However, while the delay of the release of the Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is certainly disappointing for myself, as well as for other hardcore fans eager to boot it up on their gaming system (I'm getting it on the PS4), I definitely understand the probable limitations of game development caused by COVID-19, and would prefer to have a better product in the end, rather than see them rush through development and release a shabby video game product. Until then, may the force be with us all.
Source(s): The Direct