$35 million in crowdfunding and investment later, Warcraft-inspired RTS from Starcraft devs is leaving early access unfinished at version 0.6, not 1.0 – so it's replacing numbers with codenames, which is worse

It's more common than ever for games to start out in early access before launching fully. But, gamers are pretty savvy, and some have noticed Warcraft-inspired RTS game Stormgate will be leaving early access in version 0.6. Now, I may have only gotten a B in my maths A-level, but that's less than 1.0, something others have pointed out, too.

As reported by our friends over at PC Gamer, Stormgate developer Frost Giant Studios is going to be launching the game's single-player campaign on August 5, 2025, and leaving Steam early access. Traditionally, the launch version of a game is labeled 1.0 or higher, due to day-one patches and last-minute hotfixes.

"Players have told us that calling our exit from early access '0.6' may have been well-meant, but it didn't properly convey that Stormgate's foundational content is complete and ready for players to enjoy," Frost Giant writes in a Steam post. "They said it was confusing, and we respect that feedback."

To avoid this confusion going forward, Stormgate will "drop the numbered system and instead stick with our release codenames inspired by RTS units, which we still use internally to this day. We think they’re fun, and we want to continue sharing these with our community—some are obscure and we enjoy the community discussion they spark."

Honestly, this sounds even more confusing to me, especially since two of the four core pillars of the game the devs outlined previously – campaign, co-op, competitive, and custom games – still aren't ready. This launch will just contain a campaign and 1v1 mode.

"This approach will allow us to properly recognize each release for what it is: not an incremental addition to a progress bar with an arbitrary '1.0' at the end," the developers write. If you ask me, 1.0 is far from arbitrary, it shows a customer that they're getting a full and complete game.

Is Mammoth further along the development pipeline than Necrolyte? I'd assume so, because mammoths are big, but Necrolyte is actually the upcoming patch. The numbers work, but I'm not sure if this does for new players who haven't been here since it first launched last year.

In the meantime, check out our list of the best RTS games you can play right now. The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle-Earth 2 isn't on there, but hey, no list is perfect.