Cube World finally has a release window, six years after alpha

(Image credit: Picroma)

Surprise! Six years after it released as a pa🌼id alpha in 2013, Cube World – the voxel-based, procedually-generated action-RPG that's a little like a mash-up of Wo🐠rld of Warcraft and Minecraft – has finally secured a release date.

In its first official update in years, Picroma announced it will launch on Steam ā€œhopefully around the end of September/October 2019ā€,  four yearꦔs after the game was removed from sale from the digital platform.

(thanks, ) developer Wolfram von Funck described "why everything took [...] so long" and "why there were no updates", detailing how an early DDoS attack left the developer traumatised and hesitant to press on.

"WhenšŸ—¹ I released Cube World back in 2013 on our homepage, I was enthusiastic to finally share my game with you. It was a dream come true for me, IšŸ’ wanted to be a game developer since I was a kid," they wrote.

"As some of you mighš”‰t remember, we got DDoS'ed as soon as we opened the shop. It might sound silly, but this event traumatized me and kind of broke something inside me. I never told anyone about it, and I don't want to go into the details, but I'm dealing with anxiety and depression ever since. Social media didn't improve it, as you might imagine. I'm still not sure if it's a good idea to tell the world about it, but I wanted to give the fans an explanation."

Von Funck went on to detail how, at "several points in the past years", they considered releasing an update, "but every time I was afraid it wasn't good enough" and perfectionisওt tendencies made them "rework everything from scratch several times". 

Looking ahead, the immin๊ent release sees a number of improvements on its alpha predecessor. Von Funck says the planned new release "is basically Cube World 2.0" and while there are "still many things [they'd] like to add in the future", the versiošŸ’žn finally slated for release "is already fun".

According šŸ’™to the , Cube World 2.0 offers the usual four ✃RPG classes and includes co-operative online multiplayer, "procedurally generated lore", "non-linear, open world gameplay", and "action-based combat". Of course, early adopters without forking out any more money.

While you wait for Cube World to drop, why not check out our list of the 澳擲幸运5å¼€å„–å·ē åŽ†å²ęŸ„čÆ¢:best PC games?

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the weeš“”k beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.