With just days before launch, Firefly Studios has made the difficult decision to delay the upcoming RTS Stronghold Warlords for a few more weeks. Whereas before it was due on January 26, it's been pushed back six weeks until March 9, 2021.
Cited chiefly as the reason for the delay is the game's multiplayer modes which just aren't ready to ship yet, said Firefly Studios in a statement. You can read it full below.
Dear Stronghold Community and Fans,
It is with deep regret we announced to you today that we have come to the difficult decision to delay the release of Stronghold Warlords for a second and final time. The release date will no longer be January 26th 2021. We will instead be launching stronghold Warlords six weeks later on March 9th 2021.
The reason behind this is that the game's multiplayer mode is simply not ready to be released yet. We have run into some unexpected issues with it and, while we have worked very hard to resolve these with our current deadlines, we need more time to iron them out. We want to be as transparent as possible with you about this, and we did consider releasing as planned, delaying multiplayer to go live in a future update. However as we have promised multiplayer functionality for stronghold Warlords at launch for over a year now, releasing without it wouldn't be fair to players.
We want to thank you for your continued support and patience. Delays are never desired by any studio especially this close to the announced release date, and we can only apologize for the disappointment to causes. It is however necessary if we want everyone to have an excellent, full experience with Stronghold Warlords when it launches on March 9th 2021
The notice is surprisingly open with players compared to the usual vagueries given such as "ensuring our game's quality meets the standards of our fans." Instead, Firefly flatly admits it's the multiplayer modes that are causing issues, which may put an increased focus on those aspects when the game does launch in March. As the team says it is the final delay, we can expect this highly anticipated RTS, once booked to launch last calendar year, may finally hit players' download queues on March 9.
