Roller Champions has been delayed to 2021 – Blueprint Initiative announced

Roller Champions, Ubisoft’s answer to runaway success Rocket League, was scheduled to drop sometime this year. Since its announcement, things have been a little quiet, until it showed up at yesterday’s Ubisoft Forward stream. There, the developer emphasized the game’s competitive ambitions, whilst noting that it will be accessible to all players. To achieve a balance, various modes will be included in Roller Champions. Unfortunately, Ubisoft also announced that Roller Champions would be delayed to 2021.

During the livestream, the development team also announced the Blueprint Initiative. Essentially, it’s a series of videos and developer diaries that begin in October. The series will show off different development milestones and keep players in the loop between October and next year’s launch. If you feel like you know very little about Roller Champions, the Blueprint Initiative might be worth tuning into. Hopefully, more on the game’s final shape will be revealed by early next year.

A final launch date wasn’t revealed at the event, but the release window was narrowed down to early 2021. The developers said that the shift from game testing with larger groups to smaller workshop sessions has “had a massively positive impact” on development. If Ubisoft can make Roller Champions a focused experience while still providing enough variety, it could provide stiff competition for Rocket League.

Free Drivin’

With Rocket League going free to play later this year, it’ll be interesting to see what route Roller Champions takes. We know Ubisoft is big on post-launch support, so its free to play model could really work. This delay will hurt proceedings though, as it will give Rocket League‘s free version a good head start before Roller Champions launches. Either way, Ubisoft will be hoping that its new speedy-sports mashup will get close to Rocket League‘s popularity levels. Psyonix’s indie hit managed over 50 million players back in 2018, just three years after launch.

Roller Champions launches early 2021 on PC.