'We Happy Few' Release Date: Game No Longer Launching This April
"We Happy Few" is not coming this April as initially planned. Compulsion Games has announced that it will be released "this summer" to give them more time to polish the game.
The decision to delay the final release on PC, PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Xbox One, was made after a "thorough review" of the game from beginning to end. The developer explains in a video update:
We find ourselves caught between Early Access (where it's important to have a price that reflects the current game) and the eventual release of the full game with increased scope (which we believe reflects a traditional retail game).
Compulsion Games feels that the beginning of "We Happy Few," which follows the story of Arthur, is not "as well as it should":
So we went back to the drawing board and made a couple of big decisions: we brought forward a number of story moments, to get into the action faster, and also rebuilt the whole first island for Arthur.
The studio also addressed the issue about the price hike. Fans will remember that last year, the price of "We Happy Few" went from £23 to almost £40 after Gearbox Software was tapped as the publisher.
Compulsion Games acknowledges the feedback from some Steam players who "felt the new pre-purchase asking price didn't mesh well with the game being categorized as Early Access."
While the "We Happy Few" developer says that the bigger price tag reflects the larger scope of the game, saying "What you guys see right now is definitely not what we see internally the developer," they did admit that "we can see their point."
Having exhausted all the updates intended for "We Happy Few," the game will no longer be an Early Access title.Compulsion Games promises they will offer refunds to all Steam buyers "past and present, regardless of playtime."
Gamers will not be able to purchase "We Happy Few" until Feb. 1, during which they will disable the "buy" button on Steam.