Back in May, developer and publisher Slitherine announced Stargate: Timekeepers. This tactical strategy game officially based on the military science fiction series was set to release a few days ago, but things have changed. Thankfully, the developers were able to share why.
The Stargate: Timekeepers delay
Originally, Stargate: Timekeepers was set to release December 12, 2023; two days ago. But instead of the release, Slitherine Ltd made a post on the game's Steam Discussion forums.
In this post, one of the developers, Frembot3 explained why Stargate: Timekeepers was delayed. According to the post, a major game-breaking bug was discovered while playtesting a release build of the game.
This bug would prevent players from progressing, negatively impacting episodes 5 and 6 of the game's story campaign.
Since this bug would greatly affect the critical path, the developers decided to delay Stargate: Timekeepers to a later date.
Thankfully, fans of Stargate will not have to wait long. The official Steam page has updated the game's release date to January 23, 2024. That is a modest five-week wait from the initial release date.
Slitherine's decision is notably odd in the modern game industry. Many games are released and then fixed later via updates and patches, either weathering the backlash by passionate fans or adjusting expectations for the game at launch.
Case and point, two high-profile releases, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and Alan Wake 2, recently announced updates that would include modes and quality-of-life features desired by fans at launch.
Stargate: Timekeepers is a tactical RTS game. It tells an original story set sometime after Season 7 of the Stargate SG-1 TV series. It follows Commander Eva McCain and her team supporting SG-1 against Anubis' fleet before unraveling into a campaign across time and space full of enemies, allies, and more.
This is the first major Stargate licensed game released for the PC since Stargate Resistance back in 2011.
