Written by Unfortunately, we are not surprised.
Back on April 14th, we reported that the customers of Limited Run Games were experiencing widespread delays when it came to receiving their physical release pre-orders, with Limited Run Games admitting that some of their delivery dates were “too aggressive” and “overly optimistic”.
Only two weeks removed from the release of their ‘He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction’ video game, we anticipated that both the digital and physical release of He-Man would also be a casualty of the company’s self-inflicted misfortune… something that was indeed proven true a day later.
That’s because the next day, Limited Run Games announced “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction” would be delayed until the Summer.
When July rolled around and Mattel did not mention ‘Dragon Pearl of Destruction’ during their presence at San Diego Comic-Com in a panel segment labeled “Gamers Rejoice!”…
…we started feeling a “Summer” release date for this exciting new video game was feeling more and more doubtful.
Later, in what seemed to be an odd case of ‘it’s on the internet, so it must be true’ mentality, a lone website titled Kotaku listed a September 29th release date for the new He-Man game…
…a date that Reddit and a couple places oddly spread to the public without an official confirmation. (We never found it trustworthy to report on, so we avoided reporting on it.)
Then finally some more legitimate news arrived: It was announced that Mattel and “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction” would have a presence at Gamescom, the world’s largest video game trade show held in Cologne, Germany.
And it was announced three days ago that Pixel Arcadia would be showing off Exclusive Gameplay:
Well Pixel Arcadia showed that somewhat familiar Exclusive Gameplay HERE, and then dropped the bomb that “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction” would be coming not in 2026…. but rather “Early 2027.“
To many in the community, this further delay will come across as a big disappointment. A great deal of fans were counting on this video game to not only carry their own brand excitement throughout the year… but carry on the brand excitement for the general public, solidifing a larger fanbase post the new movie’s release (and striking while the iron was hot.)
Instead, it appears “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Dragon Pearl of Destruction” will be released sometime next year in 2027 when the excitement of MOTU has generlly cooled off, finally being released in late Winter or perhaps early Spring.
Maybe.
We’ll see you next time.
Dang
Disappointing sure, but I’d rather have a finished game than a buggy mess.
This whole thing is a disappointing mess. I’m fine with waiting, but nearly a year late is excessive. Why even announce such an early release date if the game is such a work in progress. Surely they knew more than a week before release that it was not ready to go and would need several more months. Then radio silence for months afterwards. Just give us a story at least. If it switched studios during development, just say so. It’s getting to the point that some people are going to be leery about buying the game just because of how it’s been handled. I was so hyped and counting down the days at first, but now my enthusiasm is almost gone and I worry about getting a cheap buggy mess. I’m definitely waiting for reviews and more gameplay after release before picking it up at this point. I’m usually a positive person who doesn’t like to complain online, but I’ve had my limit with this situation.
At least we have that upcoming DLC for Marvel Cosmic Invasion, “Siege of Castle Doom" to hold us over till then.