GDC was postponed last week due to coronavirus concerns, revealing how dependent developers and publishers are on the event Many plans and announcements have been postponed, including Everspace 2's Early Access plans.

According to the press release, Rockfish Games was scheduled to meet with "platform operators and potential co-publishing partners," but now all schedules have been changed and the start of the testing phase and Early Access has been postponed. The company is also trying to avoid a simultaneous launch with Cyberpunk 2077, another big sci-fi shooter due out in September, when Everspace 2 was originally scheduled to appear. [The Early Access launch has been pushed back to December, with the closed alpha and beta to begin in May and August, respectively. Prior to that, aspiring pilots will be able to check out the new cockpit interior and ultimate capabilities.

Each subclass of ship will have a distinctive cockpit design with different, full-featured instrumentation; according to Rockfish, the third-person perspective has many advantages in combat, but some prefer to remain in the cockpit for a more immersive experience.

Unlike its predecessor, "Everspace 2" ventures deeper into loot shooter territory, and like "Destiny," "Apex Legends," and "Borderlands," your ship will have an Ultimate. The Ultimate is unique to your ship's subclass and requires you to shoot enemies or eventually charge them in other ways. When you are ready to pop it, you can unleash it. A reflective energy shield can greatly increase defense or turn the weapon into a Lightning Gun. You can see the Lightning Gun in action in the blog post.

Rockfish will be releasing more footage of the cockpit interior, the assault fighter revamp, and the Lightning Gun Ultimate on Twitch, YouTube, and Mixer today at 6pm GMT/10am PT.