The upcoming The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe – a long-delayed remake of the cult 2013 indie title – is sneaking back onto players’ radars, with a newly announced (but still broad) release window of “Early 2022”.
The new quasi-date was revealed in a tongue-in-cheek trailer released by developer Crows Crows Crows. Opening with the question “What does it mean to be a video game developer?”, the trailer proceeds to answer its own question with “It means lying” – before tearing into the series of delays that have plagued the project.
The game was originally announced for 2019, targeting PC and consoles. However, it was delayed until 2020, a year that presented its own share of problems external to game development that resulted in a further delay to 2021. With only 28 days left of 2021 at time of writing, that’s not happening either now.
So why should players believe the latest release claims? Well, Crows Crows Crows does at least confirm that “after three years of development, The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is now content-complete and preparing for release on PC and consoles.”
Being “content-complete” is the key, and should mean the game – an expanded version of the original The Stanley Parable, and perhaps best described as a choice-based narrative adventure with branching story paths and multiple endings – actually arrives this time.
However, after three years, the developers are still cagey over which consoles the game is coming to. To be fair, there has been an entire new console generation launch during that time, which probably complicated matters. Either way, the game’s official site simply says “We haven’t finalized which consoles specifically, but we’re doing our best to bring the game to ~*YOUR FAVORITE*~. Whichever home video game console puts a smile in your heart, we’re probably in conversation with them already.”
