It's a fine line to walk: no one likes delayed games, and yet, no one likes playing games that are clearly underdeveloped, either. However, as budgets for games rise, more and more titles are being delayed in order to add features that will make their titles stand out. As we recently reported, Saint's Row 2 has been moved back to add in 2 player co-op. Now, Mercenaries 2: World in Flames has been delayed as well, and for similar reasons. TVG had this to say after talking to developer Pandemic:
We were also keen to find out what Pandemic has been doing with its extra dev team during Mercs 2's various delays. Thankfully, we didn't get the placeholder 'spit and polish' answer that many game developers run with. Instead, Zamkoff explained that the team has been working hard to integrate seamless 2 player co-op into the game. This was certainly a feature that intrigued us last July as multiplayer co-op is far from a shoe-in for open world games.
Mercs 2 will offer online drop in, drop out co-op whenever and wherever you want it.
Once again, another developer sees the need for good cooperative gameplay. Maybe soon, co-op WILL be a shoe-in for open world games!