Combat Mission Shock Force 2 News

Release delayed - New release date September 1

We know many of you were anticipating the release of Combat Mission Shock Force 2.

Unfortunately, we have some bad news: we won't be able to release today as the game is still in the Steam review queue. It is entirely dependent on Steam, and there is nothing we can do but wait.

To stay on the safe side, we are delaying the release by one week; therefore, we will be releasing Combat Mission Shock Force 2 on Tuesday, September 1.

We apologize for the delay.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1369370/Combat_Mission_Shock_Force_2/

Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 Steam Release Delayed

This is just a quick note to say that the Steam release of Combat Mission: Shock Force 2, which was planned to drop later today, has been delayed. Slitherine/Matrix just sent out a news blast saying that the game is still stuck in the Steam approval queue. All games that want to release on Steam need to wait for final review & approval from Valve before they can launch.

The fact that it hasn't happened yet the morning of release is worrying, but something we've heard happen before.

This is the only part of the process where Valve has complete control and there's nothing Battlefront nor Slitherine/Matrix can do to hasten the process. In order to play it safe and give everything enough time, Combat Mission: Shock Force 2's Steam release date has been pushed back to September 1st, 2020.

Hopefully it'll have cleared the review queue by then. It's entirely possible it'll still clear today, but I doubt Slitherine will move the date forward again to avoid confusion. We'll update this story if we hear anything else.

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Broadening Horizons: Why Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 is making the leap to Steam

When Battlefront and Slitherine announced that they were bringing Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 to Steam, Editor Joe was surprised - "The pigs have flown," as he put it in the headline. Since the implosion of brick and mortar retailing for PC games, Battlefront has been content to offer the consumer versions of its Combat Mission simulations through its own website, ignoring storefronts like Steam that have generally insisted on a sizeable cut of the profits in exchange for placement on digital shelves.

And why not? Battlefront has also had the professional military training side of its business to see to, after all.

But thanks to a deal brokered by publisher Slitherine, Combat Mission is going to be on the radar for a whole new audience of gamers. We had the chance to talk with Battlefront co-founder Stephen Grammot, who also is one of the co-designers of Combat Mission, about how this new arrangement came to be, and the particular challenges of making high fidelity simulations for both consumer and military player bases.

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The pigs have flown: Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 is coming to Steam this month

Whether or not Battlefront would ever release any of their Combat Mission games to Steam has been a matter of hot debate amongst their fans for as long as I've been Editor here. They've never seemed that bothered, but plenty of their fans have grown weary of their approach to things like DRM and Patching and you'll always see threads pop up every now-and-then asking "why not?".

Steam isn't the be-all and end-all of digital publishing, but it certainly has its uses; but from my POV I've never thought this was actually about Steam. As an observer, Battlefront has alwayed seemed like a bit of a home-brew operation. A bunch of passionate grogs making wargames they want to and probably can't be bothered to change - especially because you can't get away with Battlefront's more cavalier attitude towards development as much on proper digital channels. They would make & sell their games the way they wanted until the end of time...

... so imagine my surprise then when I get an email about Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 coming to Steam.

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Out on August 25th

We are proud to announce that we’ve partnered with Battlefront to bring Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 to Steam. The game, and all its DLCs, will be available from August 25th.

We already work with Battlefront on some very engaging professional projects where Combat Mission is used for training and analysis purposes. We are now genuinely excited to be able to bring it to our wargaming community.

[h3]What is Combat Mission Shock Force 2[/h3]

Shock Force 2 brings you to a hypothetical conflict in Syria between the forces of NATO and the Syrian Army, in which you can play either in real-time or with the innovative turn-based WeGo system. Take command of US Stryker Brigade Combat Teams (SBCT) and Heavy Brigade Combat Teams (HBCT) to fight against Syrian Army Infantry, Mechanized and Armored units in an arid setting. Experience the full range of modern threats to conventional military forces, including irregular combat forces, terrorists, spies, suicide bombers, IED's and other deadly tools employed in the asymmetric warfare of the modern-day. Play the Task Force Thunder campaign, more than a dozen carefully crafted battles, or unlimited Quick Battles. Shock Force 2 focuses on tactical platoon-level action and features both a single-player campaign and multiplayer (Hotseat or PBEM).

Check out the product pages to know more:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1369370/Combat_Mission_Shock_Force_2/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1379221/Combat_Mission_Shock_Force_2_British_Forces/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1379220/Combat_Mission_Shock_Force_2_Marines/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1379222/Combat_Mission_Shock_Force_2_NATO_Forces/