The year’s delays continue with a highly anticipated PlayStation 5 console exclusive, published by Square Enix, and Halo Infinite features being pushed back.

Why it matters: 2022's calendar is already packed due to COVID-related delays in 2021, which we shouldn't expect to stop anytime soon.

Driving the news: Luminous Productions’ upcoming action-adventure game, Forspoken, has been delayed from its May release and will now launch Oct. 11.

• Forspoken follows a woman named Frey who is drawn away from her home in New York and into a fantasy world; the game’s writing team includes Uncharted creator Amy Hennig and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story writer Gary Whitta.
• “Our vision for this exciting new IP is to deliver a game world and hero that gamers across the globe will want to experience for years to come, so getting it right is extremely important to us,” the team said on Twitter.
• With the additional time, Forspoken’s developers will “focus all of our efforts on polishing the game.”

Elsewhere: 343 Industries is delaying Halo Infinite's much-anticipated co-op from its expected May 3 launch.

• Co-op was supposed to arrive alongside the game's second season, "but the reality is that it’s going to take more time to land a high-quality, full-featured 4-player network co-op experience in the massive, wide-open world of Halo Infinite," said head of creative Joseph Staten.
• Staten says the team is "still aiming" to release campaign network co-op during season 2's run. The team is also working on season 3.

Yes, but: Delays can be a good thing.

• Extra time means a better product for customers and a chance for developers to do the work with an extended schedule.
• Increased transparency about how long games actually take to make is a net benefit for both players and developers alike.

Between the lines: News stories circulating over the past few days might provide some clues as to the reason behind both delays.

• On Friday, the Square Enix-published Babylon’s Fall released and received many poor reviews. Many have speculated that Forspoken’s delay is due to Square Enix seeking to avoid another potential flop.
• Today, 343 Industries’ lead multiplayer designer for Halo Infinite tweeted that he would leave the studio.

Game developers across the industry are weighing in on UI (user interface) and UX (user experience), inspired by FromSoftware's Elden Ring, pointing to a larger difference in philosophy about game design.

And the inevitable result:

It's Q&A Monday! Send us your questions by replying to this email.

Q: What’s the worst rage-quit or freakout experience you’ve ever had playing a game? As a kid, I took Tekken 2 out of my PS1 and broke it over my knee …

A: I love this question because I love the anecdote it came with. The sheer drama of not just snapping it, but breaking it over your knee for good measure. Bane who?

• I'm happy to say I've never broken anything, except my pride. In Fallout 4, I decided to attack an otherwise friendly character — you know, to satisfy my deranged curiosity — who obviously got very upset with me.
• I figured I could duck into a building to escape — out of sight, out of mind. Instead, I triggered an autosave, guaranteeing this NPC would forever be trying to murder me the second I left the building.
• I wound up shelving the game entirely after a few tries to escape. Taking accountability for my actions is for my therapist, not the fictional version of myself who survived an apocalypse.

OK readers, what are your best rage-quit stories?

👹 Blizzard will reveal a new World of Warcraft expansion on April 19.

✊ The GMG Union strike has ended. G/O Media sites, including Kotaku, are back to work after securing higher salary minimums, guaranteed annual raises, 15 weeks of parental leave and more.

📱 Nintendo Switch Online app has been updated to Version 2.0, which includes improvements to its design and the ability to change your online status and see which friends are online.

👀 There are now over 1,000 verified games from Steam Deck, NME reports.

🇺🇦 Ukraine updates:

• Nintendo put its Russian eShop into "maintenance mode," which prevents players from buying digital games.
• Take-Two and Activision Blizzard are suspending game sales in Russia in support of Ukraine.
• Epic is also halting commerce with Russia, though it will keep communication lines open. "We’re not blocking access for the same reason other communication tools remain online: the free world should keep all lines of dialogue open."

• The metaverse, explained (Oli Welsh, Polygon)

Metaverse proponents often focus on the concept of “presence” as a defining factor: feeling like you’re really there, and feeling like other people are really there with you, too. This version of the metaverse arguably already exists in the form of video games. But there’s another definition of the metaverse that goes beyond the virtual worlds we know. This definition doesn’t actually describe the metaverse at all, but does explain why everyone thinks it’s so important. This definition isn’t about a vision for the future or a new technology. Rather, it looks to the past and to the now commonplace technologies of the internet and smartphones, and assumes that it will be necessary to invent the metaverse to replace them.

Today’s recommended watch: a Pokémon Legends: Arceus playthrough from YouTuber theamandafiles, a true lesson in humility. During a playthrough, she had a run-in with Sneasler, a “full-fledged mean girl, bully, pop star” with “'Euphoria' makeup,” in which the pokémon laughs at her musical talents and stuffs her into a backpack to traverse rocky territory.

• A clip from theamandafiles circulating on Twitter hits the highlights, where “In walks, on two legs, bipedal, bipedally walks … a cheerleader with a side ponytail and a fresh mani.”
• After playing the flute for Sneasler, the pokémon breaks into laughter. “Nothing can ever undo the hit my pride took, the humiliation of that moment,” the YouTuber said.”I knew she was gonna hate it, and she did."

If you don’t have the patience for 40 minutes plus of theamandafiles’ video, the clip posted by @csmith03 is a perfect sampling of everything you need.