Arc System Works has announced that their upcoming fighting game, Guilty Gear -Strive-, has been delayed into next year. The title was originally slated for a tentative 2020 holiday release, but due to the worldwide effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the developer has officially changed the time frame to “early 2021.” Arc System Works Producer Takeshi Yamanaka detailed the studio’s reason in a message which explains that both the developer and their business partners have been greatly impacted by the pandemic.

A message from Takeshi Yamanaka, the producer of #GuiltyGearStrive. pic.twitter.com/BbuFT6zKK3

— ArcSystemWorks ➡️ Staying Inside (@ArcSystemWorksU) May 15, 2020

Yamanaka goes on to say that the team will “make good use of that extra time” which means that they’ll be making full use of the feedback they received from the recent closed beta test. Now with a little more development time, Arc System Works can continually address some of the issues that were present in that test, especially the online lobby system that was lambasted by some players. Guilty Gear -Strive- will be the newest iteration in the Guilty Gear series, which has been going strong since 1998 when it first released on the original PlayStation. The franchise has established itself as a stalwart in the fighting game community and has amassed a legion of fans in the process.

Unfortunately, Guilty Gear -Strive- isn’t the only game/event to be affected by COVID-19. There’s been a number of things that have been delayed/canceled due to the pandemic. This includes E3 2020, EVO 2020, the Tokyo Game Show, and The Last of Us: Part II although the latter subsequently received a new release date. Now that they have some more development time, it will be interesting to see if Arc System Works makes any changes to Guilty Gear -Strive-. Thankfully, we won’t have to wait too long from the initial release time frame.

Guilty Gear -Strive- is scheduled for an early 2021 launch for the PlayStation 4.