Kingmakers won’t make its October 8 early access launch after all. Redemption Road Games announced the indefinite delay just five days before the scheduled release, apologizing to fans while emphasizing they refuse to cut planned features for the sake of shipping on time. The medieval action-strategy game that went viral for its premise of bringing modern weapons to 15th century England now has no new release target.
Why the Delay Happened
Lead coder Ian Fisch explained that Kingmakers is an incredibly ambitious, uncompromising game pushing Unreal Engine 4 to its absolute limits. The team consists of 80 percent engineers who got into game development specifically to push technological barriers, and they’re not willing to compromise their vision by shipping an unpolished product. The delay boils down to needing more time on content polish before feeling comfortable charging money for early access.
Redemption Road describes the technical scope in dramatic terms. The game features tens of thousands of soldiers, each with AI and pathfinding that rivals AAA third-person shooters. When players walk away from battles, the combat continues to play out in real-time with nothing faked or simulated off-screen. Giant six-story castles allow every room to be entered and every wall, floor, and ceiling to be destroyed. When players build a lumbermill, it’s a real structure that can be entered or turned into a combat arena during enemy invasions.
The Technical Ambitions Behind Kingmakers
The studio set an extremely high bar for performance. They’re targeting true 60 frames per second on midrange PCs without relying on fake frames generated through upscaling tech like DLSS or FSR. That means every frame is rendered natively, which is a massive engineering challenge when tens of thousands of AI-controlled characters occupy the battlefield simultaneously.
The game supports full drop-in and drop-out four-player multiplayer, meaning the entire simulation needs to maintain performance and synchronization across multiple clients. Each soldier uses next-gen multi-threaded AI controlling decision-making, pathfinding, and loyalty systems. A unique procedural animation system handles character movement and combat fidelity at unprecedented scale. These aren’t small technical hurdles. They’re fundamental engineering problems that most studios wouldn’t even attempt.
What Makes Kingmakers Different
The premise alone sets Kingmakers apart. Players travel back 500 years to medieval England during the Welsh Rebellion armed with modern weaponry including assault rifles, shotguns, grenade launchers, armored SUVs, motorcycles, attack helicopters, and air strikes. The goal is to change the course of a bloody war and prevent an apocalyptic event in the future.
Gameplay seamlessly blends first-person shooter action with real-time strategy. Players can mow down knights with an AK-47 one moment, then zoom out to command entire armies the next. Dynamic AI means troops react to shifting battlefield conditions, flank enemies, or surrender when overwhelmed. Choices matter too, with players able to side with England, Scotland, or Wales, leading to different story outcomes and replay value.
Community Reaction and Concerns
The last-minute delay sparked immediate backlash from some corners of the gaming community. Kingmakers currently sits as the sixth most-wishlisted game on Steam with massive hype built from viral social media clips showing its impressive physics simulations. Pulling the launch with no new release date five days before early access triggered comparisons to The Day Before, the infamous survival game that collapsed spectacularly after launch.
Some followers accused the project of being a scam, though that seems like an overreaction given Redemption Road’s transparency and detailed technical explanations. The studio emphasized they want everyone who buys the game to feel enthralled and that their money was well spent, whether they have a top-of-the-line rig or a PC that’s seen better days. Still, the lack of a new release window raises legitimate questions about how far from ready the game actually is.
What Comes Next
Redemption Road announced plans to release a 30-minute gameplay deep dive very soon, offering a comprehensive overview of everything they’ve been working on. This extended look at unedited gameplay should help answer community concerns about whether Kingmakers can actually deliver on its ambitious promises. Until now, most footage has consisted of short viral clips rather than sustained gameplay sessions.
The original release timeline tells a story of growing delays. Kingmakers was initially planned for 2024 before getting pushed to Q1 2025, then moved again to October 8, and now sits in indefinite delay territory. Publisher tinyBuild and Redemption Road Games haven’t provided even a rough estimate for when early access might actually launch, which suggests the polish phase could stretch months rather than weeks.
The Pressure of Viral Success
Kingmakers became one of Steam’s most anticipated games through viral marketing showing off its wild premise and technical achievements. Clips of thousands of medieval soldiers getting obliterated by modern weaponry spread across social media, generating massive wishlist numbers and building hype. That viral success created expectations the team now has to meet or risk a catastrophic reception.
The delay might actually help long-term by avoiding the disaster that happens when overhyped games launch in rough states. Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man’s Sky both suffered from releasing before they were ready, even though both eventually recovered through years of updates. Redemption Road seems determined not to repeat those mistakes, even if it means disappointing fans in the short term.
Technical Innovation or Overambition
The question hanging over Kingmakers is whether its technical ambitions are achievable or if the team overcommitted to features they can’t actually deliver. Pushing tens of thousands of AI characters with AAA-quality pathfinding while maintaining 60fps on midrange hardware is genuinely difficult. Most strategy games fake large-scale battles through smoke and mirrors rather than simulating every individual soldier.
If Redemption Road pulls it off, Kingmakers could represent a genuine leap forward in what’s possible in large-scale warfare games. If they can’t, it risks becoming another cautionary tale about indie studios biting off more than they can chew. The upcoming 30-minute gameplay deep dive will be crucial in determining which outcome is more likely.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was Kingmakers supposed to launch?
Kingmakers was scheduled to enter early access on October 8, 2025. The game was delayed indefinitely just five days before that launch date, with no new release window announced.
Why was Kingmakers delayed?
Developer Redemption Road Games stated they need more time for content polish and refuse to cut planned features to meet the original deadline. The studio is targeting 60fps on midrange PCs while simulating tens of thousands of AI-controlled soldiers simultaneously.
What is Kingmakers about?
Kingmakers is a hybrid action-strategy game where players travel back 500 years to medieval England armed with modern weapons including assault rifles, helicopters, and air strikes. The goal is to change the course of the Welsh Rebellion and prevent a future apocalypse.
What platforms will Kingmakers be available on?
The game is currently announced only for PC via Steam and Epic Games Store. No console versions have been confirmed.
How many players can play Kingmakers together?
Kingmakers supports full drop-in and drop-out four-player online co-op, allowing friends to join battles together and command armies cooperatively.
Is Kingmakers a scam like The Day Before?
There’s no evidence suggesting Kingmakers is a scam. The development team has been transparent about technical challenges and provided detailed explanations for the delay. However, the lack of extended gameplay footage before the delay has raised some community concerns.
When will we see more Kingmakers gameplay?
Redemption Road Games announced a 30-minute gameplay deep dive coming very soon, which will offer a comprehensive overview of the game’s systems and features in action.
Conclusion
The indefinite delay stings, especially coming just days before launch, but Redemption Road’s transparency about technical challenges and refusal to ship an unfinished product deserves some credit. Whether Kingmakers can actually deliver on its ambitious promise of tens of thousands of AI-controlled medieval soldiers getting obliterated by attack helicopters at 60fps remains the big question. The upcoming gameplay deep dive will either reassure fans that the wait is worth it or confirm fears that the team overpromised what they could deliver. For now, anyone hoping to massacre knights with modern weaponry will have to keep waiting.