Grim Dawn goes into full launch later this week

More than six years after it was revealed to the world, Crate Entertainment's dark fantasy action-RPG Grim Dawn is finally ready to go live. The studio announced in a Kickstarter update that the latest pre-release build takes the game into a complete, launch-ready state, and it will thus leave Early Access and go into full release on February 25.

Crate boss Arthur Bruno said that either shortly after the launch on Steam, or simultaneously if the studio can manage it, the DRM-free version and digital rewards will also be released. The virtual goods are finished, he explained, but the logistics of distribution through the Humble Store are complicating things a bit. Production of physical rewards for backers has begun as well, but the boxed copies of the game won't ship for awhile yet because Crate still needs to create master discs from the final build and come up with someone to actually make the boxes.

Bruno also took a moment to reflect on all that's changed since work on Grim Dawn began. “I started this single and childless and now I’m married with two kids,” he wrote. “This went from a crazy dream I knew was against the odds to the current reality of a 10-person team. I struggled through PayPal freezing our first crowd-funding account, lead poisoning, the passing of family members, all manner of technical and hiring challenges. It’s almost hard to believe looking back on it all.”

Once the game is out and Crate has caught up with “whatever bug-fixing and polish work” is required, it will get started on “future updates, modding tool release, Survival Mode (actual name yet to be decided) and the expansion,” Bruno wrote. “I’d be sad to see the end of Grim Dawn, fortunately, this isn’t the end. There is more Grim Dawn to come and also we may see the start of new things in the coming months.”

Grim Dawn is, for now, still available as an Early Access release on Steam for the undiscounted price of $25/£20. Find out more at grimdawn.com.