Space Marine 2 release date delayed until 2024

Publisher Focus Entertainment has revealed that the highly anticipated Warhammer 40k shooter won’t make its planned pre-Christmas release.

Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 release date delayed - screenshot of Lt Titus, a man shaped like a fridge in blue power armor, shedding a single cartoon tear

The Warhammer 40k Space Marine 2 release date has been postponed until the “second half of 2024”, according to a press release made by publisher Focus Entertainment on Tuesday.

The delay is being made “to provide the time needed to properly polish the game and to ensure the best possible experience”, according to the statement which Focus released on Tuesday. The precise Space Marine 2 release date will be revealed “in early December”.

The firm is not specific about what, particularly, needs changing. It states “Focus Entertainment is committed to releasing a game that is of the highest quality and that exceeds the expectations of the countless fans of the franchise”.

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Our time playing the Space Marine 2 preview build certainly found some polish lacking. The demo build was a provisional, vertical slice, with joining sections between action set-pieces absent.

It also suffered from pronounced slowdown and stuttering in one particular scene transition, in which an Astra Militarum unit led by a Leman Russ moves from an indoors location to an outdoors one.

Focus says that “Space Marine 2 has already accumulated over a million wish lists to date”, suggesting the demand for this particular Warhammer 40k game is extremely high. Wargamer is very keen indeed; we’ve been replaying the Gamescom demo build to root out content for our Space Marine 2 walkthrough, and the core combat system is viscerally satisfying.

This is a disappointment for fans of third person action games looking for a holiday hit of Warhammer 40k. However, Warhammer fans are not doing badly with videogames this year.

Warhammer 40k: Boltgun was a slam-dunk retro FPS; check out our Boltgun review for our full thoughts. Patch 13 turned Warhammer 40k: Darktide into the game it should have been on launch, with a massive overhaul to the character progression system and crossplay between PC and XBox Series S|X.

And Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin is a modern, fast-paced RTS game; check out our Realms of Ruin review to see why we’re so impressed.

Then there’s the fast-approaching Rogue Trader release date: check back with Wargamer for more news on that, as we’re eager to review the first ever Warhammer 40k CRPG.