Xbox exclusive Replaced has been delayed for the third time

Replaced, a 2.5D pixel art platformer that was originally set for release in 2022 and then delayed into 2023 and again into 2024, has now been delayed to 2025. It’s the second Xbox exclusive to be pushed this month.

The developers at Sad Cat Studios posted a statement on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday, saying that they had to push Replaced to next year because the “initial release date was optimistic. We apologize for that.”

“We need more time to ensure we meet the high standards we’ve set for ourselves and to meet the expectations of our fans,” the statement continued, capping it off with a tease that there will be some sort of announcement planned for later in the week. Replaced will also be available to play at Gamescom, a huge convention in Cologne, Germany, next week.

The cyberpunk side-scroller, which has become hotly anticipated thanks to its “industry-leading pixel art,” as Digital Trends’ Tomas Franzese described it, was revealed in 2021, but had to be delayed from 2022 to 2023 due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

It was delayed again from 2023 to 2024 due to development bottlenecks. Sat Cat Studios wrote in another X post that while production was progressing steadily, it needed more time to meet their high standards, specifically in terms of its art assets. “The main character in Replaced has more than 500 meticulously hand-painted animations made just for platforming,” the post read. “We want to deliver every aspect of the game to the same high standard, and that requires additional time and effort.”

This is the second Xbox exclusive to be delayed to next year in the past two weeks. Obsidian Entertainment’s upcoming RPG Avowed was delayed to February 18, 2025, “to give players’ backlogs some breathing room,” according to Xbox.