For those looking forward to The King of Fighters XV this year, we have some unfortunate news. SNK has announced that the latest entry in the fabled fighting game franchise has been delayed until early 2022. While the title did not have concrete date for 2021, it was slated to release sometime this year, presumably for the home console market with a possible PC port.
In a press release, SNK Producer Yasuyuki Oda states that the delay is due to the COVID-19 Pandemic number increasing in their native Japan. “The development timeline we set out to reach in the beginning has been affected by the ever-still rising cases of COVID-19 within Japan.” Yasuyuki goes onto say that the project’s quality is the priority and therefore decided to delay the release time frame of the title. Yasuyuki did not offer any more information in the press release.
Since it was officially revealed in late 2020, SNK has unveiled more than 20 fighters for the main roster. This includes long time stalwarts such as Kyo, Benimaru, Terry Bogard, Iori Yagami, Mai Shiranui, and K. The game will retain the same side by side fighting mechanics that the series is known for, albeit with the newer graphical visuals like the previous entry The King of Fighter XIV.
It’s also important to note that there has yet to be any official platform named for the title. With the previous entry being originally exclusive to the PlayStation 4, and then being ported to the PC through Steam, it wouldn’t be such a shock to see SNK continue this path with Sony and release it for the same system, and by extension, the PlayStation 5. Hopefully, we’ll have some more updates on the upcoming brawler sooner than later.