In a short message posted to the DCS World forums, community manager BIGNEWY announced that the next patch for DCS World would be coming on July 15th. That makes it approximately four weeks between open beta patches and potentially signals a change in release schedules that may be more permanent. Here’s the details.

A slowing of releases

According to BIGNEWY, the scheduled release of July 15th is now in the schedule for the next update slowing the release cycle for DCS World open beta. The key line being the following,

We are moving to longer patch cycles to enable more time for testing.

BIGNEWY on the DCS World forums

With word coming from both NineLine and BIGNEWY post release last week that the team had limited amounts of time to test the patch release before it was pushed out, this is hopefully a move into a new direction that focuses a bit more on quality releases.

Last week I suggested that some changes might need to be made to the release schedule and many of you commented. We had a great series of ideas shared there which is always good to see. I wasn’t the only one to make comments on this as many others have taken to various communities and platforms to share their thoughts. One post that definitely attracted a lot of comments was this video/minipodcast by Magz on YouTube that plainly laid out many of the issues he is having with DCS World and it’s worth a listen.

Not everyone agrees, however, I do think it’s worth a listen and a serious consideration. I and I think most of you share in the frustration that Magz is having and while I don’t think everyone necessarily agrees on a direction forward. I do think everyone wants to see some more quality patches. That’s why the announcement of a slowing of schedule and more testing is a probably a good thing.

According to Nick Grey, in a response to both Magz and Jabbers (another DCS World YouTuber) on the above video, the team has halted production on development to focus over the next little while on crunching some bugs. While I can’t see the artist team having much to do with something like that, putting the rest of the team onto this does seem like a good short term solution.

Post release of Channel and P47 we agreed with the team to freeze most ‘product development’ per se and focus on bug fixing. Let’s see how it goes… Thank you again

Nick Grey, ED/TFC Founder on Magz’s video comments

A difficult time but always with glimmers of hope

The last few months have been a difficult time for DCS World fans. The release of new content has been a highlight while performance issues in the DCS World 2.5.6 release along with bugs at all levels from crashes to lighting to radar systems just not working have plagued the experience.

I, as always, hope and remain optimistic that sometimes a difficult time helps make some longer term trends and adjustments that will lead to longer term changes and a better experience for sim pilots. And I have strong suspicions that at the end of the day, everyone wants to have a good and fun experience with their favourite simulated aircraft. Hope springs eternal!