Best Way and Fulqrum Publishing have announced that Men of War II is being delayed to an unspecified point in 2024.
In a press release announcing the delay, Best Way says that "careful analysis" of data gathered during public playtests held between March and August raised several issues that urgently needed to be fixed prior to launch.
The devs say they wouldn't be able to hit the state of "technical perfection" they want to achieve if the September 2023 release date is kept, so a delay is necessary.
The conflict in Best Way's native Ukraine is also a major factor; the press release points to "continuously difficult conditions" brought on by Russia's ongoing invasion as another reason for the delay.
Best Way's Maxim Kamensky says that the team received "so many great suggestions" as a result of player feedback that the original schedule wouldn't allow his team to "iron out all the bugs and issues".
He says that fans deserve a "completely polished and bug-free" product, asking players for "just a little more patience" to allow Best Way to deliver "such a high-quality product".
For his part, Fulqrum CEO Nikolay Baryshnikov says delaying the launch of a game is "never pleasant", but that it's preferable to "releasing a product that might not meet the players' expectations".
Best Way is far from the only developer to be affected by Russia's brutal and unwarranted invasion of Ukraine.
Developers like Frogwares and Twigames have shared their experiences of working on games during the invasion, the latter even going so far as to create a whole game set in the war-torn nation.
The industry has also supported Ukraine in various other ways, with Fanatical, Epic Games, and Itch.io being just some of the companies releasing gaming bundles or engaging in fundraising to help out.
Men of War II no longer has a specific release date, but it's scheduled to hit PC sometime in 2024. Stay tuned for more info.
