When it was announced in August of last year, developers Rockfish Games confirmed that Everspace 2 would be entering early access on Steam in the second half of 2020- but those plans have now been postponed because of very interesting reasons.
In a new update share by the developer, it was confirmed that Everspace 2’s early access launch is being delayed to September. The reason? They very openly admit that they don’t want to compete directly against the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 and Outriders, mammoth AAA games that are both coming out in that window as well.
As an open world sci-fi shooter with RPG elements, Rockfish Games think there’s quite a bit of overlap between audiences of these games, and as such, they don’t think it’s “wise to directly compete against two sci-fi shooter RPG juggernauts.”
“Some AAA blockbuster titles will hit our initial Steam Early Access release date,” the developer wrote. “The hotly-anticipated open-world sci-fi shooter RPG Cyberpunk 2077 was recently pushed back to September, plus the brand new sci-fi looter shooter RPG Outriders from Square Enix has just been announced to release the same month, too. Obviously, there is quite an overlap between those audiences and ours, so we have decided it wouldn’t be wise to directly compete against two sci-fi shooter RPG juggernauts, leaving not much room for any other sci-fi shooter coming out at the same time.
“Considering all those new challenges, we had to make a tough decision about postponing the EVERSPACE 2 launch on Steam Early Access, now aiming for early December this year.”
Meanwhile, the game’s closed alpha is also being pushed back as a result, now into late May, while the closed beta will now be in August.
“Consequently, we’re also pushing the closed Alpha back to the end of May and the closed Beta to August,” the update reads. “We will reach out to backers with creative rewards towards the end of this year.”
Rockfish Games also says that the studio is “in a financially comfortable position”, which means development on Everspace 2 is proceeding as planned and hasn’t been affected by this.
“Even if this is just a strategic decision to mitigate commercial risks when major market conditions change, we are fully aware that some of you won’t be too happy about this, but we hope for your understanding,” Rockfish wrote. “Thankfully, we’re in a financially comfortable position, so the project itself is not at risk, and we are developing the game internally as planned. This extra time also means we’ll have more content for you to enjoy in the closed Alpha, Beta, and Early Access builds.”
Everspace 2 is currently in development for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. You can get more info on the game in our interview with the developer through here.
