Harmonix delays Amplitude for PS4 and PS3 to end of 2015

Harmonix's rebooted, Kickstarter-backed music game Amplitude is coming later than expected. Previously scheduled to launch on PlayStation platforms sometime this summer, the game is now expected to hit PlayStation 4 this December for "early access" backers and in January 2016 for everyone else.

On Kickstarter, Harmonix chief creative officer Alex Rigopulos and art director Ryan Lesser explain that the latest delay for Amplitude comes as the result of an expanded scope for the game. Lesser said in today's update that Harmonix has upped the game's song count from 16 to 30, added new playable environments and expanded the number of gameplay modes, among other enhancements.

"We are now shipping a solo campaign, solo free play, 2-4 player 'free-for-all,' and an all-new team play mode (1v3, 2v2)," Lesser wrote. He also teased "a new, still-to-be-announced way to play the game that will change the way you think about Amplitude's 6-lane track."

Getting all that into the game will simply take more development time, Rigopulos said. (Amplitude's original estimated release date was March 2015.)

"We know that this schedule slip will be a disappointment to many of you," Rigopulos said. "Frankly, it's disappointing to us as well, as we're all dying to play the finished game... However, our judgment was that our highest priority is to deliver the best game we possibly can to our fans—the definitive version of Amplitude. We want to over-deliver for our biggest supporters, and that's simply going to require some extra time."

Rigopulos added that the PlayStation 3 version of Amplitude will ship "shortly behind" the PS4 version.

For more on the status of Amplitude, for which Harmonix raised more than $844,000 through Kickstarter in 2014, check out today's update.