Star Citizen Alpha 3.0 has been delayed, again

Star Citizen’s sizeable 3.0 update has unfortunately been delayed once again. Originally slated to arrive in June, the update was first pushed back to the end of August and is now expected to land, like the content it provides, at the start of September.

Alongside performance improvements and design changes, Star Citizen alpha 3.0 is set to bring the anticipated planet exploration in which players can seamlessly land their ships on a planet’s surface, get out and explore.

The official website, Roberts Space Industries released a statement about the delay. “This week, we entered the optimization, polish and bug fixing phase for the 3.0 feature set. As there have been so many features and content implemented, we’ve encountered some stability issues that we want to address before going to a wider test audience.” It also went on to cite work on the new Patcher System to have caused a slow in progression.

Fan outcry towards the delay has resulted in a lengthier, more in depth post by Star Citizen’s director of player relations, Will Leverett, pleading with fans to be sympathetic towards the process of game development and its unpredictable nature.

Star Citizen Alpha 3.0 footage from 2016

“When venturing off into uncharted territory, one does not always see or know all of the challenges ahead of them. Working on 3.0 has certainly introduced variables and challenges that we could never have anticipated, and these just do not always cater to a tidy date on a calendar. As gamers, we are conditioned to consider all dates as static points in time that we can wrap our heads around and plan for in advance. The nature of this project does not neatly fit into that mould due to the complexity of what we’re building, and with what we learn about what’s possible and needed along the way.”

The post goes on to emphasise the scale of the 3.0 update, stating that with great size of an update comes great responsibility of bug fixing, “which obviously reshapes those estimates and changes those dates.” The developers are transparent about the dates that they set, making them available for everyone to view but with delays being so frequent, it's difficult to truly follow.

“We’ve learned that we can deliver something better than the original 3.0, something bigger, something pretty ground-breaking, something magnificent,” Leverett said. “That doesn’t always keep to a schedule, but we think it’s ok to take the time to do it right.”

KitGuru Says: It’s a difficult one with Star Citizen because the sheer scope of the game eclipses most that have ever attempted such a feat, but it has experienced a plethora of delays since its expected 2014 release. Did you back Star Citizen? How do you feel about another delay?

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