SSX Release Date Pushed Back Two Weeks

Tweet

EA Sports’ upcoming reboot of the SSX franchise is looking great so far, but unfortunately for wild eyed SSX fans, EA Sports has opted to push its release date back by a couple of weeks. Since the game was originally supposed to release on Valentine’s Day, this means that gamers are off the hook and don’t have to choose between the first SSX game in five years and their significant other (we’re only kidding… hopefully).

SSX now has a release date of February 28th in North America and March 2nd in all other regions, so all told those craving some new SSX experiences won’t really have to wait that long. SSX creative director Todd Batty took the game’s official site to post a statement to fans, apologizing for the delay and saying that the game needed more polish.

Over the course of more than 10 years of making games I have not worked on a single project where our team did not wish, coming down the home stretch, that we could have just a bit more time. Time to do all the little things that may not be noticeable during the first hour or two playing the game, but are appreciated over the course of days, weeks, months and beyond.

SSX was one of the games that always took the time to do exactly that. There is a reason why Tricky and SSX3 are still among the highest rated games of all time, and it is because even playing them today they still stand the test of time. Our goal from Day 1 was to re-launch this amazing franchise with a new SSX game that could live up to that legacy.

Reading that, I doubt too many people will be fuming at news of the delay. Many SSX players have been fans since the very first gane, and have watched it evolve into the series that, as Batty said, we’re still returning to today. It would be a shame to have the reboot fall short because of a lack of polish.

EA Sports knows that it has to tread carefully here too. When the game was first revealed last year, it was announced as SSX: Deadly Descents, and seemed to offer a gritter, more authentic take on extreme snowboarding. Considering that the SSX series is all about performing ridiculous tricks that no real person can pull off, it isn’t hard to imagine what happened next. Many longtime fans expressed their disappointment in the shift away from the series’ arcade roots, and as a result, EA Sports decided to tone down the grittier feel and drop the Deadly Descents subtitle.

Now SSX is looking more like the games we’re used to, so if a little extra time is needed for polish, that’s certainly okay. Here’s to hoping that EA Sports will deliver the SSX game we’ve all been waiting the entire generation for on February 28th.