The launch of acrobatic track racer Trackmania is delayed, Ubisoft has announced. The game will no longer launch on May 5th as initially planned, but instead will land on July 1st.
In a statement sharing the news, developer Ubisoft Nadeo explained that the COVID-19 pandemic led to the decision to postpone the launch by nearly two-months, pointing, in particular, to work-at-home measures implemented to combat the spread of the virus.
Although teams have adapted to the new working conditions and levels of efficiency remain high, the developer has opted to allow more time to make the transition. Ubisoft believes this is the best choice to ensure the game launches in a state that will meet the expectations of would-be fans. In the same vein, Ubisoft states that this is also the best decision for the team developing Trackmania as members adapt to the new realities of coronavirus-era development.
Ubisoft also reiterated that the Trackmania Zrt Cup – touted as the most significant international Trackmania competition – has also been postponed as a consequence of the pandemic.
Ubisoft, nevertheless, acknowledged that the news would be disappointing for those eager to try out the remake of Trackmania Nations.
In that spirit, Ubisoft hasn’t left fans empty-handed, though, cooking up a brand new trailer to tide them over. The trailer shows Trackmania in action with some genuinely dizzying snapshots of vertiginous ramps and physics-defying loops that players can look forward to trying out come July.
Interestingly, the trailer bears the logos of both the Epic Games Store and Uplay, but not Steam. This hints that Ubisoft will forego Valve’s storefront at launch, much as it has with relatively recent releases like The Division 2, which a year on from launch still isn’t available on Steam.
As it stands, there’s still no word on pricing or whether Ubisoft will take the free-to-play approach as it did in the past with Trackmania Nations.