Just one day before its planned release, SAND: Raiders of Sophie has been delayed, though players won’t have to wait long to jump in.

Developer Hologryph and publisher tinyBuild announced the dieselpunk extraction shooter will forgo its June 10th release date for one a bit later, on June 22nd via Steam Early Access. The decision comes after the game’s recent Server Slam attracted far more players than expected and exposed serious server stability issues.

According to the developers, previous tests went smoothly, but the latest event pushed the infrastructure to its limits. Once player counts climbed into the thousands across multiple regions, several bottlenecks appeared that the team hadn’t encountered before.

Rather than risk a troubled launch, the studio decided to use Early Access as an opportunity to improve stability, gather player feedback, and continue polishing the experience. Another large-scale server test is already scheduled for June 15.

Set on the desert planet Sophie, players scavenge for resources, battle rival crews, and pilot giant customizable walking machines known as Tramplers. These mobile fortresses serve as both transportation and heavily armed bases, helping the game stand out in the increasingly crowded extraction shooter genre.

The delay is particularly understandable given the challenges facing the development team. Hologryph is based in Ukraine and has previously dealt with interruptions caused by power outages and air raid alerts during development.