New PS5 Game Launches Early And Its Devs Don’t Know How Or Why

Surprise! Ultrawings 2, a mission-based flight sim previously available on PC and Meta Quest, is out now on PlayStation 5 and PSVR2. Fans who were excited to play the sequel on Sony’s console had no idea the game was launching today. And it turns out, the developers didn’t know either and are now trying to figure out what happened.

On January 25, Ultrawings 2 launched on PSVR2. Previously, the developers behind the game—Bit Planet Games—had confirmed that a version of the flight game was planned to launch on PlayStation’s VR headset. Initially, the release window was set for sometime in late 2023. But that didn’t happen. However, when the game suddenly dropped on PSN late last night, many fans who had been following it closely assumed the developers had shadow-dropped the flight sim a few weeks after its originally scheduled PSVR2 launch. But that wasn’t the plan.

Shadow dropping Ultrawings 2 on PSVR2 today was not on our 2024 bingo card but, well, here we are.

— Bit Planet Games (@BitPlanetGames) January 25, 2024

On January 26, the developers confirmed the game’s release was a total shock to them, posting: “Shadow dropping Ultrawings 2 on PSVR2 today was not on our 2024 bingo card but, well, here we are.”

In a reply to someone asking if they shouldn’t have bought and installed the game, Bit Planet explained that the release was “unforeseen” and that the build has some “relatively minor issues” that have already been fixed in a patch that was supposed to launch alongside the game but will now be released a few days later.

Did Sony accidentally launch Ultrawings 2 early?

Kotaku spoke to Bit Planet and asked what happened. Was it a mistake on Sony’s part, as some have assumed online?

“We don’t think so,” Bit Planet told me. “We don’t know what happened. It could be something we did or didn’t do. Just don’t know (yet). I will say we don’t think Sony accidentally released the game.”

In a Reddit post, a developer on the game reiterated that they didn’t know what happened, but suggested that they might have not updated the release date information on the PSN’s backend.

“We had set an Estimated Release date for 2/9 and, well, look what happened. With that said, I think there is an entirely separate section for REAL release dates that was set to late last year that wasn’t updated,” said the developer on Reddit

After Kotaku contacted the developer, Bit Planet posted a new tweet explaining the situation and added: “On the plus side the Dayish 1 patch has been submitted and should be out within days.”

It’s an odd launch for sure, and I assume the devs aren’t happy they didn’t get to roll out planned marketing ahead of Ultrawings 2’s launch. But on the other hand, hey, look at that, we are all talking about Ultrawings 2 on PSVR2.

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