Primethius
Banned
It's absolutely a problem.
Games should launch when they're ready, but publishers should also be a bit more mindful of when they decide to announce release dates. They've always kind of been a joke in this industry, as they're rarely met the first time, but Sony has essentially made it an art form this generation.
When almost every game is, it is. Stop announcing release dates when it's not locked, and we'll go back to the odd delay being the exception, instead of it being the quasi rule.
2015-2016 has been particularly bad in this regard.
On the consumer side, maybe there should be less angst and pressure applied to "get a date" though.
I'm of a conflicted mind. It's easy to see why publishers want to announce a date when they are relatively confident in it (and lets be honest here, this is a delay of about a month, so they were pretty confident, initially at least.), as it makes marketing the game (and thus, selling it) much easier.
At the same time, it's become apparent this generation that much of the problems that cause a delay come near the tail-end of a game's development cycle. And Sony's clearly on that mind of delaying rather then pushing the title out at this point.
So, it's a bit problematic. Do you give up marketing advantages and so on in the anticipation that there might be a delay? Or do you announce and deal with the delay as it comes.
I can see both sides. I don't mind the way Sony is doing it now but I can definitely see and understand those who would. I just think game development realities in this generation have gotten to a point where it makes the issue a bit muddled.