One of the exciting things about a new year is thinking about all the new video games coming out. However, in the case of 2022, it looks like the first big title releasing this year has been delayed. According to Bloomberg, people close to the highly anticipated Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s game development have said the game has been pushed back until 2023.

While there has been no official announcement yet from Warner Brothers or developer Rocksteady Studios, Bloomberg also points out that last week Warner Media Chief Executive Officer Jason Kilar went to twitter to remind people of all the games releasing this year. This tweet had the logos for the Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy and the Batman game Gotham Knights, but Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was nowhere to be found.

This is undoubtedly going to bum a lot of fans out as Rocksteady Studios has not released a game since 2015’s Batman: Arkham Knight and they are the studio that single-handedly changed the licensed video game narrative with 2009’s universally loved Batman: Arkham Asylum. Kill the Justice League is set in that same Arkham universe and this game is ready to expand their world into the larger DC universe. The awesome Game Awards trailer shown off in December which focused on Captain Boomerang’s rivalry with The Flash does not make this delay any easier. Unlike RockSteady’s other experiences, it is a multiplayer co-op action game with the narrative driven flare we come to expect from this acclaimed studio.

This game, which was announced at 2020’s DC Fandome with a 2022 release window, is centered around The Suicide Squad comprised of Harley Quinn, King Shark, Deadshot, and Captain Boomerang having to kill a brainwashed Justice League who are under Brainiac’s control. The story is set in an open world Metropolis which is Superman’s home city.

This will probably be the first of many delays for the gaming industry this year as this practice has become commonplace for the medium and Warner Brother’s are no stranger to delays. For example, last year Gotham Knights was delayed from its 2021 release window to sometime this year. There is no reason given for Kill the Justice League’s delay at this time, but it does not spell doom for this project. In a time when development crunching and employee health are a big concern, particularly in the gaming industry, more time to work on a title can only really be seen as a good thing until proven otherwise. Plus, we still have a lot of other WB Games to look forward to in 2022 like the previously mentioned Gotham Knights, Hogwarts Legacy, and Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.

via Collider