Neat Corporation today announced that Budget Cuts, their upcoming VR stealth game, now has an official launch date after difficulties with framerate stability and other bugs encountered in the game delayed the game’s May 31st launch. And there’s not much time left to wait, as the game is set to launch tomorrow, June 14th at 10 AM PT (local time here).

Update (06/13/18): Neat Corp sent out a surprise tweet this morning saying the delay is coming to end.

The original article detailing the delay follows below:

Original article (06/30/18): The studio announced the news via a Reddit post, saying that the long-awaited Budget Cuts still suffers optimization issues. The studio says they’ll be taking the time to improve the game’s stability and framerate until it’s “consistent and acceptable,” delaying Budget Cuts launch until further notice.

The latest delay comes after a two-week delay earlier this month, which Neat Corp says they thought would be enough to fix the outlying issues with the game.

With the review embargo up since May 28th, we’ve already had a chance to dive in, giving it a solid [9.2/10]. In my playthrough, the bugs I encountered weren’t grave enough to consider the game unreviewable, or even remotely unplayable. In retrospect, I may have just been lucky to have seen acceptable frame rates on my admittedly higher-spec test rig and HTC Vive, and didn’t encounter anything more than what I would consider minor bugs that weren’t gamebreaking in the least, something Neat Corp said would be ironed out for launch, then scheduled for May 31st.

SEE ALSO
Watch the First 12 Minutes of 'Budget Cuts'

We did note bad optimization on Rift, but went ahead with the review on Vive anyway, giving the studio the benefit of the doubt that the press version wasn’t ready for Rift users in the first place, citing the lack of 180-degree sensor support on the press build on Steam.

“So, when will the game release? The honest answer is that we don’t know, but it’s going to be as soon as the game is as performant and stable as it should be,” says Neat Corp’s Freya Holmer. “I’d like to say we’re releasing soon, but that meant 2.5 years last time we used that term, so I’m going to say “in 5 minutes” which should mean approximately 1-2 weeks. Will it take longer? Maybe, maybe not. It’s very hard to predict when the issues we’re facing have many unknown variables and moving parts, which is why we’re not ready with a specific release date. Maybe we’ll time it perfectly with E3, to make sure our game will be drowned out by all of the other announcements.”

On the docket of items to address: occlusion culling, audio performance, eliminating rare progression-blocking bugs, and fixing screen glitches when framerate drops on Oculus Native build.

“On behalf of the Budget Cuts team,” says Holmer “we’re truly sorry, and hope you’re all okay with waiting just a little bit more.”

While disheartening to hear, we stick by our review score, and look forward to the day when users can see for themselves why we rated Budget Cuts so highly; hopefully sooner rather than later.

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Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Engineer_92

    This is not a good look for Neat Corporation..

  • anony

    HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

  • johnny

    LOL, this start to look like a big joke, this isn’t cool, they can just release it and later on patch it, people are eagerly waiting for this and they already delayed it once… indeed not looking good for neat corp.

  • Lucidfeuer

    Again?

  • anony

    this. is. hilarious. You guys should just give up on this game lol, I didin’t think it was worth it before the delay/hype and now its really just kicking the bucket.

  • NooYawker

    This game was talked about a lot when VR first came out. And it’s still not out and it looks the same. Cut your losses and start something new.

  • johngrimoldy

    The Spinal Tap of software companies.

  • plrr

    Okej, de här kommentarerna var inte lika snälla som de på UploadVR… En del oegentligheter. Man kunde kanske ha inhiberat Rift-versionen bara?

  • John Horn

    Hopefully they didn’t… have their budget cut?
    sorry. it was just a low hanging fruit. ._.

  • gothicvillas

    Not so neat after all…

  • Colin Parnell

    I am so disappointed about this. I have been eagerly awaiting the launch of this game. But please guys, back of the developers a little. This game was way ahead of its time when it came out as a demo and was one of a tiny handful of games and demos that made people (including me) love VR, and be able to see the potential of it.
    The music was awesome, the story great, the immersion almost unsurpassed (still I think in some ways) and the movement and interaction is still better than many titles released today. Patience is not my strongest point, but if the videos are anything to go by, and the careful, meticulous care the developers are obviously taking to ensure our game playing experience is as flawless as possible, I think it will be worth the wait. RTVR gave it 9.2, Im willing, though sad, to wait. All good things come to those who wait :)

  • Ed

    I wish more developers would take time and care with optimization and polish. Respect to the devs,

  • Jarom Madsen

    Game is released with poor optimization: Everyone screams outrage and crucifies the developers.
    Developers delay release date to optimize: Everyone screams outrage and crucifies the developers.
    More of a commentary on consumers than it is on the developers. Take your time Neat Corp. Make something you’re proud of. The only thing you shouldn’t have done was give a release date before the game was done. Time estimation in software development is the most inconsistent, unpredictable nightmare. If there’s anything unknown left in your development process, best not to make any promises.

  • Emesis

    Knock off 10 bucks and release it. Two years and a delay after a delay is not looking that promising. Now when it comes out at $30, people will expect perfection. Of course it won’t be perfect, so just release it and let it be in EA for as long as needed. This is not a triple A title, so don’t act like it is.

  • Kenji Fujimori

    90s era graphics, a lot to lose..

  • daveinpublic

    I think I know why this game is being delayed… budget cuts.

    • anony

      you obviously don’t read the comments…

  • HybridEnergy

    To be honest, I just wasn’t as blown away by the demo as some were…but also to be fair I didn’t try it till much later when bigger VR hits were already out. I’ll give this a shot and pick it up perhaps.

    • JJ

      yuupp even before the other games came out I thought it looked good but was super simple, like i didn’t think the mechanics were interesting enough to play a whole game of. And they aren’t.

  • JJ

    I’m guessing a higher up said release it now regardless of the performance.

  • sebrk

    Probably going to buy it even though I was never really blown away by the demo tbh. It already feels a bit dated. But who knows, maybe its really fun so we’ll see…

  • johnny

    Meh… I bet it’s just another release date announcement followed by another delay afterwards… I won’t be surprised… I’ll believe it when I see it.