Iä! Iä! Pledge you must, for the hyperspace gates have opened and the inheritors of Sajuuk must go forth and claim their prize.
So yeah, it’s finally here and Gearbox have apparently secured funding to finish it already, but want to use crowdfunding as means to bring in fans of the series to provide feedback, but also provide a handy cash boost. Because game development always devours money. And Blackbird Interactive can no doubt use the money for further polishing as well, if not fleshing certain bits out.
Big thing is though is that the original art guys behind the look of Homeworld are in charge of the art direction. Which means it will have that HW feel, though whether or not the music matches is another thing, but I suspect it will. Because they’d be fools not to have the right soundscape for it.
And vis Epic Store exclusivity, no idea, it might occur though if they end up hurting badly enough for funds. But given the negative attention the EGS has gotten* and the apparent solid funding they already have they probably wont need to go with Epic solely. Which probably means it’ll come out on Steam, GOG and possibly EGS if Epic don’t be douchehounds over exclusivity.
Also I severely doubt that they’ll have it out by Q4 2022, especially since they’re only 3 months into pre-production, so Q2/Q3 2023 is probably more likely. Ultimately depends on which engine they’re using, since if they use the same one as the remastered versions they maybe able to save some development time vs using Unity.
*Violence, death and rape threats are not fucking okay to use on devs who go with EGS, and if you do so, you’re a right piece of rotting shit.