This promising game by Introversion Software has slipped to a January 2005 release.
"We've decided to delay the launch of Darwinia and we're now looking at a January 2005 release.
The reason for this is that our previous estimated release date of late October was looking increasingly unlikely, due to a number of slips in the project schedule. We were looking at a late November release date, which is bad news because of the Christmas rush.
We've been given very strong advice by the UK retailers not to enter the High Street in November or December, because it is unlikely our game would receive very much shelf space, and it wouldn't remain on the shelves for very long. There are just too many massive budget games coming out for Christmas, and we'd be completely lost in the rush. We were faced with being in the shops for just a couple of weeks, going up against games like Half Life 2, which is suicide for us. The high street is a much more favourable market for a company like Introversion once the insane Christmas rush is over.
This has several knock-on effects. Phase One of the beta test is now going to be delayed until August. The applications for Beta testers is still open, and will remain open throughout the testing phase. In addition, the demo and web release will also be delayed. Obviously we want everything to come out at once - we don't want magazine reviews in October, then a shop release in January. We want it all to happen at the same time.
Apologies to everyone over this - these things do happen. I've updated the roadmap but at the moment we're unsure what's happening, so our confidence in the estimates is low. More information soon."
News source: Darwinia Hompage
