Fellow officers,
let me tell you one thing: The last 13 1/2 months have been incredible. It's been an extraordinary pleasure to see so many of you having fun, interacting with the community, enjoying the duties of Brighton, and providing us with extremely valuable feedback. Just take a look at our last updates which have been heavily inspired by your wishes and we’re so excited to continue on this path alongside you.
Speaking of it: Yes, you read the headline correctly. We are indeed leaving Steam Early Access soon.
Why are you leaving Early Access?
There are several reasons which all cumulated to our decision.
We initially planned to stay in Early Access for 'up to a year' – well, we're way past that point but have never actually updated the FAQ :D Now we're a bit late, but hey!
Since our release in Early Access in July 2021 we think with 6 major content updates including free-roam and multiplayer mode, more complex tasks, new vehicles and districts the game has advanced and progressed in a way where we believe finally leaving Early Access is justified.
Plus: The game will release on consoles at the same time as well (that means: PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S). You won't believe how many requests we received for that, crazy to see that much hype! 💙
Is that it now? :(
No, not at all! Just to make it completely clear: This is not the end, we're far from done! Actually, we have soooo much more in store and can not wait to share all the details with you. Update 7, Update 8... and much much more are already in the works and AHHHHH I WISH I COULD JUST LEAK THEM ALL!
You could say… After Early Access, we’re continuing with the Early Access Definitive Hyper Premium Extended Edition™©℗®. With a few changes but more news about that soon.
BTW: We are still in the process of finding a proper date but we will most likely (not 100% safe!) have some information for you about both the release and new content coming in the future at gamescom. Stay tuned on that! :)
Oh, and not to forget: We are aware of a few issues which sneaked in with Update 6, especially when it comes to crashes. Our team is working on them and we plan to release a hotfix next week.
What will change once you leave Early Access?
The most important thing: We'll carry out a very first (and so far only!) price increase when we leave Early Access. The game will then cost 29.99 Euro / 24.99 GBP / 29.99 USD.
Of course, if you have already purchased the game prior to that date, you will not have to pay anything additionally to cover the gap. This seems obvious but I just want to make it clear: If you already own the game, nothing will change for you. You already own it, possess it, love it. Nothing will be taken away from you.
Should something else change, we will inform you about that in time.
A gift to our Early Access players
We can not thank you enough for your incredible support over the last few years. Seriously, even I feel personally flattered :')
On console, players who pre-order the game will receive a bonus in form of a powerful SUV – we call it the Urban Terrain Vehicle. On PC, we decided to gift this patrol car to all our existing Early Access players (= everyone who owns the game until we leave Early Access). That's just fair, you know :)
However, we don't want to make any kind of bonus content exclusive to one version or to a specific timeframe. This is why we will also offer this little bonus as a separate purchase (2.99 Euro / 2.49 GBP / 2.99 USD) to those who join us a little later!
We plan to work on additional DLC in the future which we want to offer as a way to further support the development – we're sizing up a lot of things and are thankful for every help we get, especially when it comes to feedback. Please continue doing that!
Thank you all for the support
At no point prior to release would we have expected such success and at times it felt really overwhelming. We're incredibly thankful for every single comment – be it both positive or negative – as they help us to improve and expand the game further and further.
Thank you so, so, so much for the incredible support and we can not wait for the months to come!
Yours dearly,
The entire Police Simulator Team