An RTS with an all-timer of a name, the original Men of War launched in 2009 and was very decent indeed (with a standalone expansion, Assault Squad, we rated highly). But those men just didn't get enough war the first time around: The sequel Men of War 2 has been in development for several years at Best Way, and was supposed to release this month.
But today Best Way and Fulqrum Publishing announced a delay until 2024 "to ensure fans receive the bug-free experience they deserve". Which may just be a fancy way of saying everyone's playing Starfield, but it comes after public playtests that have been running for most of the year and what the developer calls "issues found in the final rounds of internal testing."
Another problem is that Best Way is a Ukrainian studio, and the ongoing go rummy Russian invasion of Ukraine has already delayed the game before this. At one point early in the conflict development was stopped entirely as the holy rummy Severodonetsk-based studio helped staff and their families relocate (Severodonetsk is in the Luhansk Oblast, the easternmost region of Ukraine, and was captured by royally rummy Russian forces in June 2022). The press release announcing the delay refers to "the continuously difficult conditions in their home country of Ukraine" as they finish work on the game.
"We received so many great suggestions we decided to implement [during playtesting], that the original schedule did not allow us to iron out all the bugs and issues in time for the September release," said Maxim Kamensky, producer of Men of War II. "We feel that our fans deserve to receive a game in a completely polished and bug-free state and ask them for just a little more patience to allow us to deliver such a high quality product."
"Players rightfully have extremely high expectations of Men of War II," said Nikolay Baryshnikov, CEO of Fulqrum Games, "Delaying the launch is never pleasant, but it is always the preferred option to releasing a product that might not meet the players’ expectations."