Back in February, Daybreak and Rogue Planet Games were talking up PlanetSide 2’s Escalation update, at one point meant to launch February 19th, then delayed to the 26th, then delayed again as the team continued testing and shoring up specific issues with Bastion syncing and Sanctuary performance. Now, the team has finally set a new launch date of March 11th. RPG’s Andy Sites thanked players for their patience in his latest dev blog.
“[T]his will be one of the biggest PlanetSide 2 updates we’ve done since launch back in 2012. Not only do we feel an obligation to live up to the immense level of hype surrounding Escalation, but as the newly formed Rogue Planet Games studio, we want to set the tone in terms of quality for all future updates. Which is why we have been MUCH more aggressive playtesting this update on the Public Test Server (PTS) than you may have been accustomed to in the past. […] [W]e believe the extra time we’ve taken, along with the amazing level of community support and feedback in our playtests, has created a much stronger foundation for this update that will allow us to immediately shift our focus to finetuning/balancing, rather than scrambling to hotfix critical issues. The past couple of playtests have given us the confidence to announce a new launch date of Wednesday, March 11[.]”
The blog also notes that a “portion” of the team is now working on the next update, promises the “final round” of NA East Coast data center upgrades on March 18th, and acknowledges the problem of outfits (guilds) with absent leaders, telling players that with Escalation, they can petition for leadership transfers. Finally, Sites gives a heads-up on the upcoming physical relocation of the EU region servers to a new data center, which will coincide with the Escalation update on March 11th. What could possibly go wrong?
As we’ve previously covered, Escalation includes content aimed at all levels, a revamp of the outfit (guild) system and outfit wars, the arrival of the Bastion Fleet Carrier, the Sanctuary social hub, and more, all of which have been driving players back to the game.
🚨 ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨
Soldiers, Escalation will deploy on Wednesday, March 11!
Outfit Wars, War Assets, Sanctuary, and the mighty Bastion are all incoming with this massive update. 🌏🔜🌑
EP @AndySites shares all the intel in his latest Producer's Letter: https://t.co/qRcBHv4ql7 pic.twitter.com/9UatI8vBHn
— PlanetSide 2 (@planetside2) March 5, 2020
