Wolfenstein: The New Order has been delayed until 2014, according to a new interview with Bethesda Softworks marketing VP Pete Hines at Polygon . The MachineGames re-boot had been planned for a late-2013 release , but developing simultaneously for current and next-generation consoles has played a role in the game's launch schedule, according to Hines.
"Working on next-gen and current gen definitely has an impact, you're developing for two different things," Hines said. "The fact that the next-gen stuff is still moving is also definitely a factor. But the most important thing was definitely just looking where it was at, what they needed to polish. Because it's just not trying to be a shooter, because it's trying to be a shooter that also has driving elements, story elements, narrative, stealth sections — each one of those has to be excellent. It's not just like we're making a shooter, where if the shooting is good, then all 16 hours of the game will be good because it's all we're doing."
We've known for a while that multiplayer was taken off the table , but Hines points out in the interview that developers are working to avoid releasing a "one-note Wolfenstein game." Different mechanics, like shooting and stealth, each require a specific—and separate—amount of time to "polish," according to Hines.
"MachineGames has been working on this game for a while," Hines said. "You don't want to waste all that time and effort for the sake of a couple of months, if a couple of months could make all of the difference in the world."
"This needs to be the best Wolfenstein game ever made, and you can't shortcut that," Hines said. "It can't have the same historical impact of Wolfenstein 3D, but it can be a better game."
