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Amplitude, the high definition re-imagining of the rhythm action title from Harmonix, has seen its release pushed back once again, the developer has announced.
Originally set for March 2015, the game was then lined-up for a summer launch, but this has now been changed-up for a 2016 debut.
“As the game came together this year, it became apparent to all of us that it was shaping up to be something really special,” explained producer Alex Rigopulos. “The gameplay is as fun and addictive as ever, the HD visuals are gorgeous and hypnotic, and the soundtrack is killer
“The game is fulfilling all of our hopes and ambitions for it, and at a certain point, we made a major call: We’ve decided to double down, increase the project budget, and make the new Amplitude bigger and better than the scope of game we originally pitched to you all last year.”
This means 30 songs instead of 16, two additional playable environments, and a host of game modes: solo campaign, solo free play, 2-4 player free-for-all, and an all-new team play mode (1v3, 2v2).
There’s also new leaderboards giving players the ability to compete asynchronously against each other online for score, both per-song and across the whole game. A whole new way to play will also be announced soon.
All this means Harmonix is going to need more time to finish the game.
“It’s impossible for us to finish all of these extra songs, environments, features and modes on the same schedule,” explained Rigopulos. “Our previous target for shipping the game was this summer. Now that we’ve committed to this expanded scope, though, we won’t be able to complete and ship the game until the end of this year on PS4 (with the PS3 version coming shortly thereafter).
“Kickstarter backers who paid for the ‘early access’ reward will be able to play the PS4 version in December, prior to the holiday break. For everyone else, the PS4 version will become available in January. (We’ll follow up with the exact dates in December and January for PS4 as soon as we have them. PS3 will follow shortly behind.)”
Rigopulos concluded: “We know that this schedule slip will be a disappointment to many of you. (Frankly, it’s disappointing to us as well, as we’re all dying to play the finished game…) However, our judgement was that our highest priority is to deliver the best game we possibly can to our fans – the definitive version of Amplitude. We want to over-deliver for our biggest supporters, and that’s simply going to require some extra time.”
Source: Kickstarter
