Steel City Interactive announced on Dec. 21 that the company intends to release Undisputed via Early Access on Steam as its next major step – and it will forgo a third online beta.
SCI’s Global Communications Director Will Kinsler, and Creative Director Ash Habib, made the announcement via Undisputed’s official Youtube channel. The conversation can be found in the Undisputed Development Roundtable #5 video. No exact release date for Early Access has been confirmed at this time.
Undisputed Early Access
The Undisputed team described the second beta as a “success” in the roundtable. When asked about a release date for Early Access, Kinsler responded:
“Well, we are not doing another beta. [Laughs] We can say that. There are things we have to do to sort of finalize it. We are asking for a little more patience… We really want to get to that date, too. That’s what this is all about. [We will] go into the new year and I think you can expect to hear from us and we will get you back into the game as soon as we can.”
Kinsler, Habib and Undisputed Content Manager Edward Vasquez were all smiles in the video. Habib concurred with Kinsler’s answer regarding Early Access.
The news suggests that PC gamers will get the first opportunity to continue to support SCI through Steam’s Early Access program. The program is designed to help indie developers, such as SCI, to make a working title available to PC gamers early and with a price discount. This will allow SCI to finalize a game for a full release with additional funding earned through Early Access game purchases.
Undisputed Gameplay Tuning
The Undisputed team also noted during the video the need to continue to fine-tune gameplay balance in the coming months. Since the game is simulation-heavy, the finer details make a notable difference in how players fight. Habib shared anecdotes of his matches from the beta in the roundtable. The studio creator admitted getting knocked out with one punch, a flash knockout. He used his only loss in the December beta to emphasize the realistic mechanics his studio is building into the game.
“If you try to play this like other combat games, there’s a chance of getting completely wiped out. We need to make sure it is balanced properly,” said Habib. “We are pushing ourselves to deliver the best to the community.”
Undisputed & PlaiOn UK
Lastly, SCI went into detail during the roundtable on its decision to partner with a major game publisher. According to Undisputed’s official Twitter account, SCI is partnering with UK publisher PlaiOn, with the intention to bring the game to market across the globe.
“We are in a publishing agreement with PlaiOn. The reason we are doing that is because we made an authentic boxing game and we want as many people as possible to experience it,” said Kinsler.
“Publishers have resources for content, marketing, global pipelines and distribution, and they have relationships with Xbox and PlayStation – that way when we get into full launch on consoles, that we are doing everything that we can to reach as many people as possible, and make sure that we are serving our players all around the world…”
We are delighted to partner with @PLAION to publish Undisputed and bring boxing back to gaming. #BecomeUndisputed 🥊 https://t.co/Nc2J50uL6A
— Undisputed (@PlayUndisputed) December 13, 2022
With PlaiOn, Undisputed certainly appears to be moving toward a full console release in the future. No timeline estimate was given on a console release, nor how long the game would live in Early Access.
“It feels exhilarating to have people playing the game and then we see people playing it the way [we] envisioned…I can’t wait until we can get the game back in everyone’s hands again,” said Kinsler.
You can watch the full video of the developer roundtable, here.
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