The person in charge of transmitting the news was Guillaume Boucher-Vidal, executive director and creative director of Nine Dots Studio, who did not want to beat around the bush. In its text, the developer acknowledges that the announcement to delay the release of Outward 2 may seem sudden, but assures that the consequence of clinging to its roadmap would have been to deliver a game that may not meet players’ expectations. That’s something they don’t want on the development team.
«The last thing we want is to disappoint Outward fans, and we’ve received a lot of feedback wishing the game would spend more time in development before release,» says Boucher-Vidal. «The goal of a beta is to listen to feedback and this is what we have done.» The developer says that it is painful to break news like this, especially for the most enthusiastic players who had already planned their vacations to be able to play. However, he recognizes that it would be worse to play something that is not up to par.
The Outward 2 open beta ends on Monday, June 22.
«It’s difficult to gauge what level of stability is appropriate for early access,» says Boucher-Vidal. «The best thing we can do is take an honest look at the game and our team and ask ourselves: In a few weeks, will it be good enough to charge money for?» Nine Dots Studio wants there to be a big jump between the testing and beta they launched in early June and the early access launch of Outward 2. In addition, they want the experience they offer to players to justify their price.
In his message Boucher-Vidal does not talk about a new launch window, but in the Steam file he clearly indicates that it is 2027.