What just happened? If you've been eagerly waiting for Cyberpunk 2077's release since its initial reveal way back in 2012, we have some bad news for you today. Though the ambitious futuristic RPG was supposed to launch on April 16, it seems developer CD Projekt Red has decided the game needs quite a bit more time in the oven: Cyberpunk's release has been pushed back to September 17, 2020.

That's an astonishing five months away, which is much longer than the two-to-three month delays most AAA titles receive. However, in its announcement, CD Projekt Red says it needs the extra time to fix bugs, as well as playtest and polish the game.

Though this delay has proven frustrating for fans of the studio and the genre (myself included), it's tough to argue with that reasoning. As the oft-quoted legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto once said, "A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad."

If CD Projekt Red had been forced to push Cyberpunk 2077 out the door before it was as bug-free as possible, the studio's consistently-touted emphasis on quality would have been called into question by gamers and the press.

Given how many resources CD Projekt Red is investing in this project (the development team now consists of hundreds upon hundreds of developers), that's clearly not a PR hit it's willing to take. Indeed, the studio claims that Cyberpunk 2077 will be its "crowning achievement" for this gen, so it will certainly not release it before it's ready.

On the bright side, Cyberpunk 2077 is fully playable and content complete. This delay is not the result of feature creep – CD Projekt Red just needs more time to touch up what it has already built.

There's more good news, too. The developer has promised to give fans "more regular updates on progress" as the updated release date approaches, which will likely take the form of blog posts and gameplay demos, at the very least. Since CD Projekt Red has been all but silent the past few months, that's great to hear.

We look forward to seeing how Cyberpunk 2077 turns out when it finally launches later this year. If you're so inclined and haven't already, you can pre-order the game, or its Collector's Edition right now from the official website (or your retailer of choice).