JBoc924First of all, you may be reading the title of this editorial and going “what?” so let me get this out of the way first: My stance on this matter isn’t merely influenced by the amount of respect I have for Konami and Mercury Steam, instead, I feel this way because of what happened with ‘Reverie’ and its issues with Xbox Live which caused a delay for its respective audience, which also affected PSN users in other regions. Thus, being encountered with a delay for the final DLC add-on for Lords of Shadow, titled ‘Resurrection’, is completely justifiable. How so? Well, let’s take a look.
The PSN is currently down, due to attacks on its security infrastructure by “cyber-terrorists”, as Sony is referring to them as. This automatically puts ‘Resurrection’ in a sticky situation. If Konami stuck with the April launch window for the DLC then they would have once again be met with an audience that wouldn’t have access to said add-on: PSN users. And we all know how long the wait Xbox Live users had to endure was to have ‘Reverie’ on their platform, so it’s wise to not let that happen yet again.
Whereas ‘Reverie’ was met with technical issues relating to Xbox Live itself, this time the PSN being completely inaccessible, due to the current scenario Sony is unfortunately in, may be the key reason for ‘Resurrection’ being delayed.
There were a lot of complaints from Xbox Live users and PSN users outside of America due to the DLC add-on’s delay. After many updates from David Cox, the game’s producer, and Konami themselves, fans were still left to wait with brewed anger over not being able to play ‘Reverie’ like US PSN users were able to. Now, the tables have turned.
Call it sweet revenge, or just bad timing, but the PSN being down gives those Xbox Live users who were made to wait for ‘Reverie’ a reason to boast…sort of. I mean, they’re still being affected by this delay as well, so…why laugh at the face of the opposing online service and its current scenario?
This whole PSN situation is no laughing manner, but don’t be surprised if this is in fact the reason why ‘Resurrection’ has been delayed. It makes logical sense, Konami doesn’t want a repeat of the receptions Reverie’s delay was met with, so just push ‘Resurrection’ back altogether until PSN is back up and functional, which Sony says will be sometime this week complemented by their “Welcome Back” program. But even then, having the PSN once again accessible to users doesn’t automatically mean Resurrection’s release will closely follow the re-opening of the service’s digital doors: We’re still going to have to wait for the Playstation Store to be functional, which according to Sony, won’t be till around the end of May.
Technical issues, security breaches, and other such issues aside; ‘Resurrection’ could also be delayed quite simply because Mercury Steam is aiming to deliver an even bigger experience than what ‘Reverie’ offered.
‘Reverie’ offered a very superb follow up to Lords of Shadow’s ending sequence, pre-credits, that even went as far as feeling like the first chapter of a full-blown sequel. Mercury Steam did a remarkable job with the add-on’s pacing, puzzles, and platforming mechanics, despite some small annoyances with those sea-lurking monstrosities. Without even showing any screens or even a trailer for ‘Resurrection’, the final DLC chapter has a lot to live up to, especially after the reveal of the “unruly evil” that we’ll be doing battle with and the actual events of Reverie’s ending scene. So, before you start drawing obscenities just think about the scenario we’re currently in.
