Inazuma Eleven Ares has been delayed even further to 2019 by Level-5, with president Akihiro Hino coming out in a livestream to apologize and explain the reason the game’s been in development for this long.

According to Hino, the reason why the game has taken this long is because in order to speed up development, the game was partially outsourced to an outside development studio, but it turned out that the outside studio took on the job without the necessary amount of staff to support development. Hino acknowledges that Level-5 should have monitored the outside studio more closely, but also states that this fact was hidden from them. By the time it realized it, the company wouldn’t be able to make the date.

Level-5 knows of the quality expected from an Inazuma Eleven title and moved to cover its losses, but were unable to make up for that at its current position. Now, development on the game has begun again, as a new project that is being worked on by Level-5 and a different development studio from the previous one.

As such, judging from the current development progress, Hino noted that the game will likely come out May 2019 earliest, although this isn’t a solid release window either. Hino stated that quality will be prioritized, and Level-5 wants to make a game that will be considered amazing by the end of all this.

Hino then moved on to talking about Ares and what makes the game special. In Inazuma Eleven Ares, every team that was especially popular returns with its characters being recruitable.

The game also has various story scenes, some of which appeared in the anime as well. However, the game version will have a different atmosphere and has a story that will be presented differently, as new story scenes not in the anime are also included.

Many people have asked Hino about content from Inazuma Eleven: Orion no Kokuin, considering how that is the latest season airing, Hino acknowledged that Inazuma Eleven Ares will be released in the awkward period when Orion no Kokuin is set to reach its climax and as such, Inazuma Eleven Ares is likely to have additional content based on Orion. The additional content is being considered to possibly be added via DLC later on.

As for whether the title ‘Inazuma Eleven Ares’ even fits anymore, Hino states that all these elements, including the title, are under reconsideration.

You can watch Level-5 and Akihiro Hino’s explanation livestream archive below:

Inazuma Eleven Ares is in development for the PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android, and will be coming out in Japan May 2019 or beyond. How this delay affects the Western release is unknown, but the game currently has a 2019 release window for the West.