With the recent announcement that the studio has returned to work (albeit in a slightly reduced capacity for the present), we wanted to announce the current developments for our various settings and projects. We’ve already talked about some of the new card games in development as well as the plastics for Dystopian Wars. Let’s see what 2020 holds for Firestorm Armada!

The global pandemic caused the greatest disruption to the studio since Wayland Games founded us in 2016. It wasn’t just our products and services from China and the United States that were affected. To protect our staff, our in house development and manufacturing facilities were closed for many months, including our fantastic state of the art resin and plastic injection departments as well as the studio itself. This caused us to rework our plans for the year quite drastically. We lost six months, but completely shutting down certain projects has actually caused a knock on effect which has disrupted things well into next year. In order to get things on track we have to look at our production schedule and consider what is important to develop and what needs to wait for a year or two before we can deliver it properly. So we looked at Firestorm and knew that there was no way it would be:

Yes, I know it’s a cheap shot putting something like that in an article like this. While some games will have to enter an extended period of ‘Development Hell’ being removed from our current release schedule (Planetfall and Uncharted Seas) and others will see themselves looking at delays into late 2021 and beyond (Lost World Exodus and Armoured Clash) as we open up space in the schedule to make certain we can support Dystopian Wars and Firestorm Armada in the right way.

I’m delighted to confirm (again) that the Firestorm Armada Beta will launch on Wednesday the 9th September 2020.

The Beta will run along similar lines to the successful Dystopian Wars Beta Test. Full details of how to get involved will be revealed in the coming weeks along with all the latest Firestorm news here at the Black Ocean - The Official Firestorm Armada Community Group. Not only will you be able to share your Beta Test discussions, but also you’ll find a wealth of sneak peeks, concept art and background material as the game takes shape. Find it all here.

We are excited to venture out into the Firestorm universe with you. See you on the Black Ocean!

Stuart