I am trying to create a function (which I will trigger through the WP Cron) but no values are passed and the database values remain NULL. Could anyone point me in the right direction of where I’m going wrong?

I am trying to compare multiple dates against todays date, keep the future ones, store in an array, and get the first available date in the future -> store this in a new post_meta field. Update the value daily vi WP cron and use this field to sort the posts.

This is my current code with comments:

/*
* ACF Field Structure:
*
* - jurisdiction_release_date (Repeater)
*   - jurisdiction_date_selection (Group)
*      - alt_release_date (Date Picker)
*      - alt_jurisdiction (Taxonomy)
*      - alt_release_date_option (Select)
*/

function update_game_release_date() {    

    $game_args = array( 
        'post_type'=>'games',
        'posts_per_page'=>'-1',
        'post_status '=> 'publish',    
        'fields' => 'ids'
    );

    // The Query
$the_query = new WP_Query( $game_args );

// The Loop
if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {

    while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {
        $the_query->the_post();

        // execute for each post
        $current_date = date('Ymd');
        $alt_release_dates = array();
        $post_id = get_the_ID();
        if( have_rows('jurisdiction_release_date') ):
        while( have_rows('jurisdiction_release_date') ) : the_row();
        //load group
        if( have_rows('jurisdiction_date_selection') ):
            while( have_rows('jurisdiction_date_selection') ): the_row(); 
            // load field values
            $alt_release_date = get_sub_field('alt_release_date');
            // only list if jurisdiction date is larger than today's date (in the future)
            if ($alt_release_date > $current_date) {
            // Add all future dates to the array
            array_push( $alt_release_dates, $alt_release_date );
        }
            endwhile;
        endif;
        endwhile;
        // only future release dates are now stored in an array. Just select the next (smallest) by using min()
        //create new variable from array in template above
        $release_date = min($alt_release_dates);
        else:
        // If not dates added, get date value from ACF field 'release_date'
        $release_date = get_field('release_date');
        endif;
        // Update the post meta field '_release_date_hidden' with the new value stored in variable $release_date
        update_post_meta( $post_id, '_release_date_hidden', $release_date );

    }
    
} }

// The wordpress Cron
add_action( 'update_cron', 'update_game_release_date' );

if ( !wp_next_scheduled( 'update_cron' ) ) {  
    wp_schedule_event( time(), 'hourly', 'update_cron' );  
}