The sequel to the Bit Planet Games’ mission-based flight sim, Ultrawings 2, was released on the PS5 and PSVR2 platforms on January 25, 2024, to everyone’s surprise—including the developers themselves.
Developer Bit Planet Games originally intended to release the game to PS5 and PSVR2 sometime in late 2023. The goal, however, did not pan out, leaving the game’s console release temporarily in limbo for an unspecified later release date. Then, the unexpected happened—the game was suddenly released late on the night of January 25.
The initial reception of the unceremonious launch was met with the notion that the game studio was shadow-dropping the game. However, that did not seem to be the case as Bit Planet Games was not aware of the launch until it did.
In a post on X/Twitter, Bit Planet Games announced the game’s apparent “shadow-drop launch,” saying—“Shadow dropping Ultrawings 2 on PSVR2 today was not on our 2024 bingo card but, well, here we are”.
Following a query concerning the game’s unannounced launch, Bit Planet Games said that it was simply “unforeseen.” It also suggests that the game might have “relatively minor issues” that were supposedly fixed with the coinciding day 1 patch. Said patch, however, is expected to roll out in the coming days.
Meanwhile, Redditor ThaBEN started a thread explaining the case, stating that the release was accidental on the part of Sony. It also reiterates the idea that the launched product is not the final build.
