Studio MDHR said it was pushing back the release date of the expansion to make sure "this new adventure meets the meticulous level of care and quality we always strive for." The developer also suggests it's hoping to avoid the crunch culture that permeates the games industry, whereby developers are often encouraged or required to work a vast amount of overtime to finish a project promptly. "The development of the original game taught us a great deal about the importance of making things in a way that's healthy and sustainable for our team," the studio wrote in a blog post.

The delay perhaps shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, given the lengthy development time of the core game, and the labor-intensive process of piecing together every hand-drawn frame of animation to form Cuphead's distinctively beautiful visuals. Nevertheless, the team offered a brief glimpse of what's in store when the expansion finally arrives, in the form of a teaser trailer.