What just happened? These days, we pretty much expect every big game to be delayed, but such postponements still disappoint fans when they happen. It's been confirmed that not one but two of this year's most anticipated titles won't be arriving on schedule: Battlefield 2042 and Dying Light 2.

First up is Battlefield 2042. It was due to arrive on October 22, but EA has pushed it back to November 19. The company blames the delay on "unforeseen challenges" rising from the pandemic.

"Building the next generation of Battlefield during a global pandemic has created unforeseen challenges for our development teams," DICE studio general manager Oskar Gabrielson said in a statement. "Given the scale and scope of the game, we had hoped our teams would be back in our studios together as we move towards launch. With the ongoing conditions not allowing that to happen safely, and with all the hard work the teams are doing from home, we feel it is important to take the extra time to deliver on the vision of Battlefield 2042 for our players."

The game's open beta was supposed to take place in September. We still don't know if that will be the case, with Gabrielson saying that updates on the open beta will arrive this month.

Dying Light 2: Stay Human, the hugely anticipated follow-up to 2015's parkour-meets-zombies FPS original, will also miss its scheduled launch date. Initially set to arrive on December 7, developer Techland says fans will now have to wait until February 4, 2022.

It's not been an easy development process for Dying Light 2. At its E3 2018 reveal, an "early 2020" launch date was given, yet the only thing Techland announced in January last year was an indefinite delay. A December 7 release date was announced earlier this year, but that's also been changed.

"The game is complete, and we are currently playtesting it. It is by far the biggest and the most ambitious project we've ever done. Unfortunately, we've realised for us to bring the game to the level we envision, we need more time to polish and optimise it. We are sorry to keep you all waiting a little longer, but we want the game to meet your highest expectations on release, and we don't want to compromise on this," wrote CEO Pawel Marchewka

The good news is that we won't have to wait until February 4 to find out if Dying Light 2 lives up to the hype. Marchewka says that press and content creators will get their hands on the PC and console versions of the game next month during a series of preview events around the world, and they can share their experiences with the public.

Looking at Steam's most-wishlisted games, Battlefield 2042 is in third position while Dying Light 2 sits at the top, so the delays will doubtlessly disappoint many. Plenty of other AAA titles have experienced postponements in the past, of course, but let's hope these games turn out more like The Witcher 3 and less like Cyberpunk 2077.