Marvel's Midnight Suns was one of the few games confirmed for the D23 Expo's Disney and Marvel Games Showcase ahead of time, and it showed up with a nice new trailer giving fans glimpses at combat, social elements, and more. Of course, the big news is that, following its recent delay out of October, Marvel's Midnight Suns now has a December 2, 2022, release date. Many fans were upset about not getting the social-tactical RPG in 2022, it seemed, but those fans can now rejoice.
However, what wasn't made exactly clear from the new trailer was that this only applies to the PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X versions of the game. Per a recent press release, Marvel's Midnight Suns will release on PS4 and Xbox One at a later date than its current-gen counterparts. This isn't exactly surprising, as game development only grows more complicated the more platforms a title has to release on, but it is unusual. During D23, Game ZXC was able to ask Creative Director Jake Solomon and Franchise Producer Garth DeAngelis for more details on this decision.
Marvel's Midnight Suns Release Date Changes Explained
It comes as no surprise, but it's all about having parity across all platforms. Firaxis has always had a large emphasize on deep systems with tons of emphasis on tactics and strategy, and this often results in interfaces that work better on PCs and with Mouse and Keyboards rather than consoles and controllers. While Marvel's Midnight Suns is as much in depth as XCOM, if not more so, making sure the quality between PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X are equal is important. Speaking to the reasons of the recent Marvel's Midnight Suns delay, DeAngelis added,
There are corners in this game that we haven't even conceived of before in prior strategy titles, so we were trying to get the team some time to make it as great as possible. And on top of that, we want to have parity across all of our platforms and SKUs. So making sure that current-gen consoles play just as smoothly and nice as PC is really important.
Of course, that logic extends to everyone who plans on picking up the game, regardless of the platform. In terms of the PS4, Switch, and Xbox One versions, Firaxis still needs more time than the December release date. How much longer isn't revealed, as that decision is likely still in the air, but it speaks to the quality that Firaxis wants of Marvel's Midnight Suns that it's not going to release on these platforms before the game is ready. "We need some more time to also bring those up to snuff," DeAngelis stated, and also added,
"To 2K's credit and Marvel's credit, I think they all see that. We don't want to have SKUs that are wildly disparate, so giving the teams more time to have parity there, I think, is a really wise move."
Indeed, all too often with game releases, there is one version of the game (usually PC) that plays much better than the rest. For something with such an emphasis on tactics like Marvel's Midnight Suns, one could see how this could easily end up being the case. However, Firaxis wants to make sure that the game plays top notch everywhere and that can only be respected, even if means fans must wait on the PS4, Switch, and Xbox One versions of the game.
Marvel's Midnight Suns releases December 2 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X. PS4, Switch, and Xbox One version will release at an unannounced, later date.