toxicitizen

Is it at least Cyberpunk enough?

A delay would imply going past an original project end date. Whereas if your original end date is already beyond that then you're not trying to do 100 tasks in 12 months, rushing to meet that, then trying to wrap up the rest in an additional 2 month delay, but instead 100 tasks in 18 months from the get go.

Bit like "buffer time" if you've seen Lower Decks. Or proper project management and scope if you've seen that.

Even if wasn't public, the project will always have had some kind of internal target they were shooting for. How else could they possibly plan and budget? The distinction you're making is purely semantic. An internal delay is still a delay.

Besides, software development is notoriously difficult to plan for. The game was in development for like 7 years, 5 of those being active development with a full team. That seems like plenty of time "from the get go" to me. At some point, you have to announce a release date and try to make it. Estimating that release date is where they fucked up.