To all who have been watching how our project evolves and have taken part in the Early Access including those that are labeled as Founders - we are glad to inform you that we’re entering the final stage of development of IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad.

Eighteen months ago in December 2012 we announced the start of a new flight sim project and now you can see what exactly that project is. In February 2013 development started, and six months after that we decided to provide the community an opportunity to support our enterprise via the Founder program. Thus, the game became available for sale in July 2013. It was a bold and peculiar move for us and for flight sim fans as well. We hoped that our adult and mature community would understand the specifics and decide to help us in our courageous endeavor. And many of you did, helping us get to this important point in the development process.

Four months after the opening of pre-orders we started the Early Access program - another risky step considering that our goals and player’s expectations could have been completely different. But then we decided to establish a highly transparent communication operation with the community. And there were arguments, kudos and critiques, but this was exactly the thing that allowed us to build such cooperation with thousands of players from all over the world. And we feel this approach proved to be a good one with positive results.

Today, a new stage of development is upon us – the Beta-version stage. The Alpha version is a cast copy of the project, it’s a shadow with the original forms merely sketched. The Beta version already has all key elements and the game is practically ready to be released - it just needs to be tested and tweaked. Our game will remain in the Beta stage for the whole summer of 2014. All this time will be spent for testing and quality assurance procedures. lL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad will be released in September 2014.

Although not our original planned release date, we decided to prepare the game properly so we could present it to the worldwide flight sim community with pride. And your support and attention has proven us that the future of our project is worth fighting for despite all circumstances. Rest assured that the rest of the path will be exciting too. Firstly, we received numerous requests to make Standard edition available again, so we agreed to put it back in the store until June 18th. All the details about the two different editions are available on our site.

Secondly, as a sign of gratitude for your trust and great support we decided to give the Founders tag to everyone who bought the game from November 2013 till May 2014. Because that way you can be recognized as someone who made the rebirth of your favorite gaming genre possible!

We also plan to launch the game on Steam later this summer. Pricing will be similar to the one on our site. All details about the Steam release will be announced later.

Thanks again to all Early Access participants and pre-order owners! You have been making the game together with us. It’s a rare and precious experience for us and hopefully you as well. And thanks to you the project is going to be of a nice quality. The remaining 50% of the development progress is polishing, debugging and taking care of performance and usability issues.

The next step is the Beta version. Looks like we made it, guys! And congratulations on the V-E day!




Today we give you soviet fighter La-5 for the early access. It's one of the two premium planes in our project. This means that golden Founders and early access owners will be able to try the plane in a few hours, but players with Standard edition already have time to plan purchasing La-5 in future. Both La-5 and Fw 190 A-3 will be available in our store in the end of June.



Please, DO NOT backup your Input folder this time. Older version of Input will not work. Just let the game update everything automatically.



Fan-video by ruNike



Ref http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/168-developer-diary/page-2#entry115950

Good stuff!

So we'll be able to buy the La and Fw before the game's release? I figured that would have to wait till release day, wasn't expecting that.




The Jedi Master

La5 and Fw 190 A-3 is already include in Premium version. "Golds" can fly La5 today.

No information/definition to buy as individual or aircraft pack for owners of Standard version...

Sokol1

I just took the La5 for a spin and I love it. Just the view over that huge engine, the slats, the sound of the engine, it's a great aircraft to fly.

-C-

I am "Silver" Error #10003 Even though it shows on my list of aircraft on the quick mission screen.


Paul

Oh excellent, the La-5 should be quite the challenge to fight against.

The gang is about to find out that trying to outturn a Bf109F is a bad idea.


Snouty.


Too much flaps, just enough bombs.


Slats are a hoot. It's fun just playing with the rudder seeing them deploy.


-C-

with the Lavokchin-5 Russian's side have finally a good aircraft to fight these pesky 109s...

Even though I was hoping for a Spring release, I'm glad they decide to keep it in Beta to polish and work out the bugs and move the release date back... Best decisions a game developer could make. Nothing kills a game/sim faster then a buggy/unplayable (CLoD) release...

From what I read, this is still an Alpha. Next release will be a Beta. And I agree - no need to release raw product; cook this baby up until ready. For now as users that are satisfied with this product, we need to PR IL2 to rest of community so that team will create more goodies for us.

Really Great NEWS !!!!!!!! Can't wait to get in my La5 !!
And MAJOR PROPS to Jason and 777 for changing the dates so some of us could get the Founders tag and what comes with that !!
I'm Overjoyed to see that !
It was a Very Kind and generous thing to do !
Thanks 777

Now off to update and try the LA5 !!

Most Sincerely Desode !

To be sure that I'm understanding this, when they say they have reached the "beta" stage, this does not refer to the "early access" version we can access? Updates are going to continue to be released for the "early access" until it is final? So maybe another way of putting it would be, they now have a feature-complete but unfinished internal beta version (as in the proper definition of beta), and the early access is like a "public beta" consisting of the stable elements of their internal beta?

I don't know why (perhaps because I don't regularly read the official forum and don't speak Russian), but I always feel like I don't quite follow the actual meaning of their announcements. If they separated updates into "overall progress and news" and "early access progress and news" it might help (because, naturally, I'm *mostly* interested in what applies to me right now). I mean, if it weren't for the paragraph about the La-5, you could get the impression that the early access program is over.

The change to beta status means that all the functionality needed to produce the game is in place. It does not mean that it all works perfectly, just that it is in place and working in some manner. Now they stop developing new functionality and start perfecting the stuff that has been created.

A role model for the future of flight sim development...well done!

H

Well said, well said ... and help extend the life of the whole genre a little.

Absolutely agree with that.



The team clearly communicates the development process to the community, adds content on a regular schedule and isn't afraid of stating difficulties or limitations.

Of course it also helps that the sim is already absolutely amazing and well worth its price.

I'd never expected this kind of overall quality in that amount of time.

Well done indeed.

Fully agree. The most pleasant thing about everything is their engine. Flight simulators tend to have fairly poor engines that either run pretty sluggish, lack decent anti-aliasing or overall are just very sterile to look at. This engine however is just smooth, polished and amazing. A pleasure to fly every time.

yep - I'm very happy with what I'm experiencing so far.