Star Trek fans looking forward to enjoying missions aboard a Federation starship in virtual reality will have to wait four more months to do it.
Ubisoft announced today it is shifting the release of Star Trek: Bridge Crew from the end of November to March 14, 2017. The delay is so Ubisoft can “deliver the best game experience possible at launch” and “we want to offer a compelling and engaging experience.”
The game is designed to require the cooperation of up to four members of a bridge crew working together to solve problems facing the ship. It was set to launch on PlayStation VR, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift with Touch, which hasn’t even shipped yet. Hopefully, the extra time will give Ubisoft the chance to develop important features like cross-play — so it isn’t hard to find people to play with — while adding some depth and variety to the missions crew members might encounter.
The delay is a blow to Star Trek fans who had hoped to spend the holidays this year exploring the universe with friends aboard a starship, but hopefully the extra time will help turn a really good idea for a game into a really good game.
Interestingly, the game is set inside the timeline established by the most recent J.J. Abrams films, and it would have released long before the new Star Trek: Discovery television series premieres in 2017. Now the game and television show are set to arrive just two months apart, with Discovery premiering in May next year. The timing is notable because, assuming the Bridge Crew game is fun, a follow up that connects players in VR to the version of Star Trek seen in the forthcoming television show would be much less expensive to build on top of the existing framework of Bridge Crew.
