Homeworld 3's next "mothership-sized" update will be its last as development wraps up

Since its release in May, the real-time strategy game Homeworld 3 has been receiving post-launch support from developer Blackbird Interactive. While a major year-long content plan was originally attached to the game, the studio announced in September that it would condense everything into one major update and DLC release in late 2024. Now, that "mother-ship" sized release is almost here, but not without some bad news for fans.

The sci-fi RTS is getting update 1.3 on November 21. In it, the developer touts having completely retuned balance for combat, fresh abilities for use across all modes, War Games changes, and a lot of general improvements across the board, mostly based on player feedback.

Homeworld 3's modding tools are being updated, too, letting tinkering players inject custom Unreal Blueprints into the game while opening up the game's own blueprints from its campaign missions. "This should further empower the modding community to make more awesome creations," says the studio. Find the complete patch notes for the update here.

Two premium DLC packs will go on sale on November 21, too. These will contain two new factions, the Somtaaw and Taiidan, with unique gameplay styles and dedicated War Games fleets.

As for the bad news, Blackbird Interactive announced that this will be the final content update for Homeworld 3, completing its post-launch plans. It also looks like the studio will no longer be attached to the franchise or the game's publisher, Gearbox.

"Revisiting the Homeworld universe has had a profound impact on just about every person at Blackbird," said the studio in a farewell message to the franchise and fans. "To that end, we’d like to offer our heartfelt thanks to Gearbox Publishing for bringing us in to work on Homeworld with them. We also want to thank you. The fans who, through your support and dedication, have helped Homeworld persevere across so many decades."

Following update 1.4, Gearbox will still deploy fixes for any major issues that pop up while also keeping multiplayer servers and modding support alive in the backend.