Ubisoft has announced that Far Cry 6 will be delayed past its original launch date of February 18, 2021, and into sometime after April of that year. The sixth main entry in Ubisoft's open-world series of murder vacations, Far Cry 6 is set to take players to a fictional country not dissimilar to Cuba to take on a fascist regime. The reveal trailer for the game focuses on the main villain, who is played by Giancarlo Esposito of Breaking Bad fame. The character is a lot more soft-spoken than others who have been in that position in past games, but there's almost no doubt that he'll be a major presence when it comes to audio messages in-game.

The last release in the series, Far Cry 5, released early in 2018 and took place in a small town in the middle of America. After a string of out-there DLC expansions, a direct sequel was released in 2019 called Far Cry New Dawn. Both games were received less than favorably by critics, many of whom said that the franchise formula that has remained in place almost unchanged since Far Cry 3 is beginning to show wear and tear. Despite that, the Far Cry games continue to be popular with a core audience just looking to fire off an AK-47 in various locales around the world.

In an official tweet from the Far Cry Twitter account, Ubisoft says it's taking more time to get Far Cry 6 in shape for release. Ubisoft says that the global pandemic and working from home has delayed the normal process, and the team wants the extra time in order to improve the game's quality while also making room for worker safety and mental health. No new date was announced alongside the tweet, but earlier talk in a Ubisoft earnings call places the game forward one quarter, which means that it will not release until at least April of 2021.


Despite the delay of a marquee title, Ubisoft still has a full release schedule in the coming months. Watch Dogs: Legion launched today and will be a day one title for both of the upcoming next-generation consoles. Assassin's Creed Valhalla will also hit at launch on Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, followed closely by Immortals Fenyx Rising in early December. That's three huge open-world releases from the publisher, and one must imagine that part of the reason that the delay was authorized was to put some distance between those games and another huge sprawling blockbuster.

In a time full of big games getting delayed (sometimes multiple times), pushing Far Cry 6 back a few months likely isn't going to elicit a huge response. Looking at the responses to the delay tweet, many fans seem happy that the developers are getting more time to create the game they want to make, which runs in stark comparison to the reaction that came from the delays of Cyberpunk 2077 and Halo Infinite. Far Cry is seemingly in a more low key place in the industry these days, appealing to a core fanbase and not attracting the types of players who might have unreasonable expectations about the incredible hardships developers have had to go through in 2020.

Far Cry 6 will launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, and PC at some point in 2021.