King of Fighters XV delayed to Q1 2022, SNK has just announced. Despite the recent barrage of info and character reveals, it seems that the threat of Covid was something too big to overcome.

Yasuyuki Oda, KOF XV Producer, shares in a statement that “The development timeline we set out to reach in the beginning has been affected by the ever-still rising cases of COVID-19 within Japan. We have made the ultimate decision in the end that the product’s quality must come first, and so with that decision comes an altered release window.”

Oda continues and asks for patience from the fans and community, as the development team will keep on working hard to improve the product before it is released.

King of Fighters XV was initially set to release this year, but delaying titles to give priority to the health and safety of the development team, which in turn improves product quality, is always a good idea. It was a tough decision to make, but props to SNK for making the call.