Blackbird Interactive has revised the release schedule for Homeworld 3 updates to insted drop a trio of free updates alongside two fleet packs for its War Games mode this November rather than between now and early 2025, as it had previously stated.
That means major changes to how skirmish games play, new capabilities for ships in that mode, as well as two new fleets that complete the promised updates for the "Year One Pass" that some players pre-ordered at launch.
"Following the release of update 1.2, we made the decision to combine all remaining paid DLC and free content drops in the roadmap into one unified delivery in November. Combining the content into one beat will allow us to focus all our resources and provide you all with a higher-quality experience," said Blackbird in a post on Steam.
The free "player-requested" features coming in November are pretty broad. Ships in Skirmish will be able to hyperspace jump, a classic Homeworld movement method for relocating large ships that many players felt was lacking in Homeworld 3. That'll come alongside hyperspace inhibitor technology for Hiigaran Support Frigates and Incarnate Disruption Corvettes that will stop warpers dead in their tracks.
Several other changes are incoming to twist how Homeworld 3's skirmish matches play out—mostly by slowing them down. Resources will now gather much more slowly, and resource controller units will be more expensive to make them a "riskier, more meaningful investment." There'll also be a new, more linear tech tree with unit and research unlocks being gated behind other requirements.
Those free updates will come alongside the classic Homeworld 1 and 2 factions [[link]] of the Taiidan and Kiith Somtaaw as player factions in the War Games mode.
You can read the full post of "What's next for Homeworld 3?" on Steam. Player reactions vary, with some fearing that this accelerated schedule means Blackbird will drop support for Homeworld 3 after November.
Homeworld 3 was a hotly anticipated game for the RTS community, but has been quite poorly received. Players have taken exception to the ways it differs in gameplay from its predecessors. They've given it a withering 38% positive user review total on Steam, saying that it required less strategy and didn't quite capture the old magic.
"Homeworld [[link]] 3 takes some big swings, but while it's a very good RTS, it never quite comes together in the same way as its predecessors," said reviewer Fraser Brown in the 77% PC Gamer Homeworld 3 review.