Kingmakers Early Access Delayed at Last Minute

Redemption Road’s Kingmakers, which had an October 7th release date for Early Access, has been delayed indefinitely. This is the title’s second delay this year, as the tinyBuild-published action/strategy game was originally targeting this past spring. Now, with less than a week before release, there is no release date in sight. The October 7th date was announced early in the summer during Summer Games Fest, which gave the team some breathing room to get the game in shape for a beta. Unfortunately, with a game as ambitious as Kingmakers, it’s poised to be a game prone to several bugs and performance-halting gameplay.

Kingmakers picked up a lot of steam when it was announced. As the concept of bringing modern weaponry/vehicles into grand medieval battlefields is entertaining as all get-out, and hasn’t been deeply explored since the hidden gem Darkest Days. Developer Redemption Road, whose only other title to date is Road Redemption, has been plugging away at Kingmakers development for years now.

As most devs do leading up to a game’s release, communication is key to ensure both a successful launch and subsequent updates for player retention. Delays are upsetting to consumers, but delays with days to spare before thousands of gamers are expecting to play is downright devastating, destroying a chunk of goodwill and potentially even making players not purchase the title when it eventually comes out.

It’s sad to see Kingmakers not get out of the gate yet, but as Shigeru Miyamoto said, “a delayed game is eventually good, a rushed game is bad forever.” This mantra will always hold true, and there’s no shortage of games to play at present. That doesn’t make the wait any less frustrating for those looking forward to Kingmakers, and here’s hoping the game can get out of the gate sooner than later before its interest fades away.