Sniper Elite 4's official promo art

Sniper Elite 4 was supposed to arrive later this year, but unfortunately that appears to no longer be the case. According to the most recent Rebellion blog post, the premier "ball-busting" sniper game will instead release on February 14, 2017.

Its not all bad news, however, as IGN has recently managed to sit down with a couple of guys from Rebellion and see what exactly the fourth iteration of the series has managed to cook up. Here's the video, and a brief explanation from Rebellion on why exactly the delay was necessary:

 

"So when we sat down recently to decide a launch date, we had a decision to make. Do we stick to 2016 as planned many moons ago, or do we give the team just a little more time to help them deliver beyond the promise that the game has already shown, to hone the game’s best features, or even add new ones that previously might have been left on the cutting-room floor?

It wasn’t an easy decision but for us it seems like a win-win for both Rebellion and Sniper Elite fans.

This is why we’re proud to be completely independent. Being independent means you can make changes when things are going really well, rather than just reacting when things don’t go to plan. 

We know a lot of you will be disappointed that you won’t get to play Sniper Elite 4 this year, but we hope you understand our decision and enjoy all the new footage and details from our beautiful “Viaduct” level this week."

As strange as it might seem I'm actually happy to see games get delayed, as long as its not a constantly reoccurring thing. The reason I say this is because a delay shows confidence from both the developers and the publishers that the final outcome will be well worth the wait, and well worth all of the extra cost. They could easily release it sooner, gobble up all of the money they can, and then simply pretend its not their problem. It might sound silly now, but this series of events still happens far too frequently in the gaming industry, so I'm always going to be appreciative of the developers that decide to delay their game for quality's sake.

Slight rant aside, here's to hoping Sniper Elite 4 ends up being a whole bunch of fun, and that all of the extra months earned from the delay go towards making it the best game it can possibly be.

Sniper Elite 4 fatality screenshot