High on Life's delay was partly down to God of War: Ragnarok and Call of Duty

High on Life screenshot
(Image credit: Squanch Games)

Upcoming and unconventional shooter High on Life was delayed partially so it wouldn't have to compete with God of War: Ragnarok or Call of Duty. 

As revealed in an interview with GamesRadar+ during Gamescom 2022, High on Life was pushed from its October release date to December 13 to give space to other big titles releasing around the same time, such as God of War: Ragnarok and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

As High on Life chief creative officer and art director Mikey Spano explains, "October's crowded – it's really crowded." So, a delay was needed for the comedic FPS to stand out: "For us, the benefit is the conversation. So if we're missing out on the conversation, because everybody's talking about God of War or Call of Duty, that's a missed opportunity for us."

This isn't the only reason the game was pushed back by a couple of months, though. "As we were getting the game up to a certain point, we realized we would have Act One polished and it'd be great," the art director says, "and we might have Act Three really polished and great. And the middle would have also been great, but not quite as good as Act One and Act Three."

"And as we started to see how good Act One was, we were like, 'oh shit, wouldn't it be great if we could get everything out to this quality level?'" Spano continues, "[the delay] gave us a little bit of extra that we needed. And it got us out of the way of some of those bigger titles."

For more exclusive information on this upcoming Xbox Series games, check out our Fall 2022: High on Life feature. 

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.