Back in 2021 we were excited to see that the Wipeout-style sci-fi racer BallisticNG would be speeding onto Switch in the future. Well, a couple of years down the line, developer Neognosis has announced that the Switch port is now cancelled as a result of last week’s controversial policy changes from Unity (thanks, VGC).
As a brief recap, Unity last week announced plans for a ‘Runtime Fee’ policy, which would effectively charge development studios each time a game made using the Unity engine was installed. This was met with instant backlash, of which BallisticNG’s Switch port cancellation is but one example, and the plans were later changed in the aftermath.
Neognosis took to the game’s Steam page to share the sad Switch news, stating that the lacking “trust and security” that has come about following the policy’s announcement has meant that the studio will not be moving ahead with the proposed plans.
It comes with much frustration and disappointment that we’re announcing the cancellation of the Switch version. Several years of development has gone into preparing BallisticNG technically for the port while maintaining the usual output of updates for the PC version
We’re sorry that it has turned out this way, and we’ll be looking at working with the console (or the rumoured Switch 2) in a future project not bound by Unity.
BallisticNG will still receive support on Steam, the developer has noted, though it is looking into other engines to use for its future projects. For more information, be sure to check out the developer’s full statement here.
Despite Unity recalculating the proposed policy changes, we would be surprised if we didn’t hear more news like this from smaller studios over the coming weeks. Here’s hoping that the Wipeout-like racer will be able to speed our way in the future, one way or another.
