In an announcement that wasn’t shared widely, Ubisoft reportedly told the Discord community for Roller Champions that it wouldn’t arrive before March 31 as previously announced. Instead, Roller Champions is being targeted as a late spring release, which likely means it’ll be targeting June. Another Roller Champions delay isn’t impossible, of course, given the project’s struggles up to this point. At that point, however, it becomes more of a question of if, not when.
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Ubisoft did provide a very general reason for the delay. It describes the situation as Roller Champions needing more time to deliver a “successful game” that can “properly honor” the excitement fans have for the project. It’s referring to players who have participated in the game’s past tests, which include a pre-alpha demo released in 2019 and a 2021 beta test.
Given the lack of specificity in the explanation for the delay, there’s a lot of room to speculate. It’s possible that feedback from the beta is being addressed, or simply that the game isn’t as polished as the development team would like. It’s also possible that Ubisoft would rather launch Roller Champions after a lengthy marketing campaign, or during a release window that’s less crowded with popular games. June does seem like a more opportune release window with those issues in mind.
What is clear is that Roller Champions, regardless of what Ubisoft says about its following, does not have much excitement built up around its release. In many ways, it hearkens back to the launch of Ubisoft’s battle royale Hyper Scape, which struggled to build an initial audience.
The online multiplayer live-service game environment is incredibly saturated, with dozens of games vying for players’ attention. Roller Champions is going to have to be its best self when it does eventually launch, whether that’s in the late spring or beyond. Here’s hoping that the development team at Ubisoft is able to put together something special with the time it’s taking.
Roller Champions releases late spring on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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