40v40 squad-based tactical shooter ‘83 delayed to early 2026
Emanuela
(12. November 2025 16:45
)
40v40 squad-based tactical shooter '83 delayed to early 2026. New Dev Diary details its fundamentals ahead of launch
Cornwall, England November 12th, 2025 - Blue Dot Games have just announced that '83, their upcoming 40v40 squad-based tactical first-person shooter set in an alternate 1983 where the Cold War escalated into an all-out conflict, has had its Early Access launch delayed until early 2026. To offer further insight into the delay, the team at Blue Dot Games has issued the latest in their Developer Tapes series showcasing different aspects of '83, focusing on the game's core fundamentals and how feedback from Steam Next Fest has helped shape various aspects of the game ranging from visual fidelity to UI to gameplay interactions.
"Since Steam Next Fest, we've been heads-down, focused on digging through your feedback, analysing performance data, and turning that insight into action," said Tony Gillham, CEO at Blue Dot Games. "The response from the community has been vital, and we want to thank you for taking the time to play, review, and help shape the future of the game. Our priority since the demo has been clear: focus on the fundamentals. That means getting core systems feeling right and stable before we move on to lots of new content."
Some of the biggest areas we're working on include:
Gunplay: From recoil to visual feedback and camera shake, firing weapons in '83 should feel as realistic as possible and will continue to be tweaked.
Movement and Animation: We're refining fluidity across the board. Going prone, in particular, is being totally reworked for smoother transitions, as is all interactions with the surrounding terrain.
UI: This was a major focus of feedback during the demo, and an almost complete replacement of the legacy UI is already in progress and will be ready for our Early Access release.
Visual Fidelity: We've already made big strides in lighting and texture work, improving the game's visuals along with VRAM usage to reduce crashes due to unoptimized VRAM usage.
We've already updated models, textures, and animations for the AK-74, AKS-74U, and AKS-74UB and that's just the beginning, as all weapons, gear, uniforms and vehicles will be given further passes to ensure they remain as faithful to their real world counterparts as possible.
One of the more exciting features we've started rolling out is our early destructibility system, designed to bring more realism, immersion, and tactical opportunities to the battlefield. Vehicles now tear through fences, sandbags, and hay bales, crashing through defensive lines and opening up new flanking routes. Windows and fences can now be destroyed in blasts, leaving new flanking opportunities along with an increased visual visible impact on the world around you. Other changes include a new lighting setup on the Norway map - now called Fjord - shifting the time of day for clearer visibility and a new tactical flavour.
Player feedback has been instrumental in shaping our roadmap, and every change we're making brings us closer to the Early Access launch that both we and you want to see. Stay tuned as '83 will launch on Steam Early Access in early 2026!
More about '83 '83 was built on the idea of "accessible realism", with an aim to make everything as realistic as possible, until the point where it stops being fun, then it gets ratcheted back one notch. Taking you to the action fast, matches average around 30-40 minutes, and whilst dying only takes you out of the match for a short while, before allowing you to respawn, don't underestimate this seemingly low-stakes penalty, as that time-out is enough to turn the tide of battle as '83 requires thorough communication and teamwork.
'83 features era-authentic weapons and equipment with realistic handling and lethality, with each armament meticulously designed and animated according to its real life counterpart. Every weapon behaves in a realistic way, with barrels and suppressors overheating when rapid firing, machineguns require a stable surface for accuracy, and bullets don't magically teleport in between magazines when you reload a half-empty one. '83's focus on realism, coordination and large-scale immersion offers players a gritty, boots-on-the-ground experience in a world teetering on the edge of nuclear war!
