Deltarune Will Release Earlier Than Expected, But Have Less Content At Launch

Deltarune traffic screenshot

Toby Fox, video game composer and the creator of Undertale, has given an update on the game’s sequel, Deltarune, on the 5th anniversary of the game’s first chapter stealth release. There’s good news and bad here — the good is that it’s coming out sooner than expected, and the bad is that it’ll be launching with less content than initially planned.

In a post on his website, Fox revealed that Chapter 3 of Deltarune is almost finished, after the first two chapters were released for free in 2018 and 2021. Fox has previously said that the rest of the game – chapters 3 through 5 – would be a paid release, bundled together as one complete game when all chapters are finished, but it looks like plans have changed a bit.

Instead of Deltarune releasing as a paid game when Chapter 5 is done, the game will instead be released after the completion of Chapter 4, with Chapter 5 to be added post-launch.

“My original plan was to release Chapter 3, 4, and 5 together,” Fox says in the statement, “However, the finish line of Chapter 5 is still pretty far off... and I don't think anybody really wants to wait that long to release anything. Especially me.

“So, new strategy: No more waiting for Chapter 5. Instead, we are going to focus on putting DELTARUNE out for purchase once we finish Chapter 4. Chapter 4 already has a very substantial amount of cutscenes and enemy work done. Also, I've hired a new producer whose entire job it will be to speed up the overall game development for future chapters. So, I feel very optimistic about the next steps of this project.”

Fox goes on to say that detailed development updates will be on pause for a while as the team gets to work on Chapter 4 and 5, and will now only provide updates when development is almost finished, “or if something funny happens.” A fair policy, honestly.

No release date or window has been announced for Deltarune yet, but when it does get released in full, it will likely be released on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.