Redemption Road has delayed its tactical shooter game Kingmakers indefinitely, stating it requires "a little more time for content polish before we feel confident asking players to pay for it."
In a statement posted on social media on October 3, the studio announced the October 8 launch is "no longer possible," and apologized to fans, adding: "we are sorry for letting you down."
Kingmakers features a soldier who travels back to Medieval England in an attempt to "alter the course of a brutal war" and prevent an apocalypse. According to its official description, the game offers a "fully real-time simulation with thousands of soldiers battling simultaneously," powered by "next-generation multi-threaded AI."
The announcement trailer for Kingmakers became a viral sensation, amassing hundreds of thousands of views on channels like IGN. Many fans drew comparisons to the anime Gate, which similarly blends modern military elements with a medieval fantasy setting.
While many in the community understood the decision, some expressed disappointment at the short notice, given the delay was announced less than a week before the planned release.
"Why is Kingmakers being delayed? In short, it's an incredibly ambitious, uncompromising project, and we refuse to cut any planned features just to ship it sooner," the studio explained. "Our goal from the beginning has been to create something completely unique in terms of gameplay, scale, scope, and interactivity—unlike anything else available.
"With Kingmakers, we aimed to push the Unreal Engine 4 codebase to its absolute limits while maintaining a true 60fps experience on mid-range PCs, without relying on artificial frame generation. We are a team comprised of 80% engineers who entered this industry to break through technical barriers."
The statement further highlighted that the game features "tens of thousands of soldiers, each equipped with AI and pathfinding systems that rival what you'd expect from a AAA first-person shooter."
"Battles continue to unfold even when you leave the area," it added. "Nothing is scripted. We have constructed massive six-story castles where every room is accessible and every wall, floor, and ceiling can be destroyed. When you build a Lumbermill, it becomes a real location that can be entered or, during an enemy invasion, transformed into a combat zone.
"Every mission takes place on an expansive, server-wide map that any player is free to explore—with or without commanding their personal army of thousands," Redemption Road noted. "We set out to accomplish all of this while supporting seamless drop-in/drop-out four-player cooperative gameplay, and we have succeeded. We just need a bit more time to polish the content before we feel it's ready for purchase. That is our focus right now. We want to ensure that every player who buys the game is captivated and feels their money was well spent, regardless of whether they have a top-tier gaming rig or a PC that's seen better days."
Redemption Road did not announce a new release date but promised to share a half-hour "deep dive into Kingmakers gameplay very soon."
