The Forgotten City is being completely overhauled, but that means it's delayed too

The Forgotten City is a standalone game based on an award-winning Skyrim mod that sets players off on a murder-mystery investigation in an ancient underground city, where they'll grapple with themes including morality, modern society, humanism, and time travel. It was announced at the PC Gamer Show at E3 in 2018, with launch expected to take place sometime in 2019. Given that today is December 17, you probably know where I'm going with this.

Developer Modern Storyteller announced today that it has signed a deal with Dear Villagers, whose previous releases include Dead in Vinland and Bury Me, My Love, to publish The Forgotten City. The partnership will enable Modern Storyteller to expand the scope of the game with "entirely updated visuals, a new setting and story, professionally voice-acted characters, and a stirring original soundtrack." That's good news, but you don't get that kind of top-to-bottom upgrade without a price, which in this case is a lengthy delay.

"From the start, I wanted The Forgotten City to be meaningful, personal, and rich with detail to reward curious, intrepid players," Modern Storyteller co-founder (and original Forgotten City mod maker) Nick Pearce said. "The support of Dear Villagers has already been an incredible boon, allowing me to focus on a world and narrative more detailed than I ever imagined when working on the mod."

The Forgotten City is now expected to arrive in late 2020. If you just can't wait until then, the Forgotten City mod for Skyrim remains available on Nexus Mods, although obviously it will be a much smaller and more basic experience than the standalone game will be. Modern Storyteller also released a new teaser today that you can check out below.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.