It’s not the news that Darkfall fans were hoping for this week. Tasos Flabouras’ latest developer blog has revealed that the official launch of Darkfall: Unholy Wars has been delayed once again to allow for more work to be completed. The game missed its initial launch window in November and had planned to release this month. But as life in the MMO world goes, that didn't go as planned.

• While we have done a lot of internal testing for the game, the platform has been thoroughly field tested, and the game has also been tested by external partners, we have always felt that the game should be tested by the players and last checks corroborate this. Time however was not on our side.
• Secondarily, some of the reasons which caused us to slip from our original launch date last month are not yet fully resolved to our satisfaction and a bit more time is needed. For the record, what’s left shouldn’t take more than a few days longer.
• Being Greenlit on Steam so quickly was beyond our expectations, this success was 100% community driven and it showed us how important to the community this is.  After evaluating the procedure needed for proper Steam integration, we realized that if we launch on schedule it would be impossible for us to launch with Steam.

As a result of the decision, an extensive closed beta is planned with an expected start date of December 17th. Pre-order customers will have access to the testing. If all goes as planned, Adventurine plans to launch the game in January once it's cleared with Steam and has some good solid testing behind it.

• We’re launching a fully playable beta version of the game as soon as we get the build ready. We have a firm ETA for Monday, December 17th. By beta version we mean the game will be running in debug mode so that we can quickly get valuable feedback from playtesting and we can identify and address issues as quickly as possible.
• Pre-orders get beta access; we’re making pre-orders available on Friday so you can download the game over the weekend.
• Some details regarding the pre-order: returning Darkfall players will get the game at the price of the subscription during pre-order. New players will get the game at a discount. Pre-orders get 30 days of game-time when the game launches, beta access for as long as that is live, plus you can reserve your character’s name. We will also explore offering a head start.  Pre-order slots may be limited and will be throttled if needed.
• We can focus on playing and working with you to identify any bugs and imbalances and will continue working closely with our players to improve the game so that by the time the game launches it will be as perfect as possible. There will be developer – player interaction on issues that come up, and we want to keep developing a user-centric culture throughout the lifecycle of Darkfall Unholy Wars.
• We will also be working round the clock on getting the game ready for a Steam launch with all the Steam features we want0 integrated.
• The Darkfall Unholy Wars launch should happen as soon as we’re cleared to do a Steam launch, we assume that the game will be properly tested by then as well. Our estimate is January after the holidays. We will announce a specific launch date as soon as possible. We need to estimate the exact time it takes to integrate all the Steam features, and to assess what feedback we get from our playtesters.

Of course, anyone that’s been around the MMO scene for a while knows how that targeted launch windows can be. Time will tell how this one plays out.

What do you think of the delay to Darkfall: Unholy Wars? Were you expecting a second delay or are you as upset as some of the players commenting in the blog? Tell us your thoughts below.

Source: Darkfall: Unholy Wars Delay Announcement