Homeworld 3 release date delayed to winter 2024

Homeworld 3 is delayed and will now launch in February 2024, Gearbox Publishing announced on Thursday. The schedule change confirms what fans had suspected, as previously the sci-fi real-time strategy game had been slated for a launch sometime in the first half of this year.

In a Twitter statement, Gearbox said the delay is meant to give those fans “the quality experience [they] deserve.” The studio added that “we need more time to refine and polish the game.” Homeworld 3 will launch on Windows PC.

Blackbird Interactive, which made the spinoff/prequel Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak for Gearbox in 2016, has been developing Homeworld 3 since 2017.

This makes the second delay for Homeworld 3, whose first launch window was 2022. The series dates to 1999 but hasn’t seen a main-series launch since 2003’s Homeworld 2 (though a remastered version of that did launch in 2015).

The series’ dormancy comes from former publisher THQ’s bankruptcy and liquidation 10 years ago; Gearbox’s acquisition of the franchise; a crowdfunding campaign to support the long-awaited sequel; and then Embracer Group’s acquisition of Gearbox, suspending that campaign.