The Roberts Space Industries website announces a delay to the release of the Arena Commander module, which was supposed to go out to Star Citizen backers today. There was a simpler time 12 days ago when this seemed feasible, but it turned out to be too ambitious, as they note there are at least two show-stopping "blocker" bugs among the remaining issues with the module. They offer a complete list of the bugs they are chasing, and word is there will be daily progress reports until Arena Commander is released:

It would be foolish to release an unstable build, even if pre-alpha for the sake of meeting an internal deadline. This is the power of the crowdfunding that made Star Citizen possible: a publisher would make us ship tomorrow regardless of the current build quality… but as you are all focused on quality rather than a financial return for shareholders we are able to take a few more days to deliver something that is stable.

I know that’s not the news you wanted to hear tonight. No-one would like to see the community get their hands on Arena Commander more than I would.

This is what can happen with an open development process, especially when we are sharing code and content long before one normally would in traditional development. But I don’t think you would want it any other way! The Star Citizen team feeds off of your incredible enthusiasm and your energy for the project… and we want more than anything to see what happens when you get into space.

In order to keep our backers as informed as possible, I’m asking the production team to provide DAILY updates for the community until Arena Commander V0.8 ships. This will be the raw stuff: lists of bugs and other information to tell you the current health of the build. You will see the same information I do, and you will be able to follow as we resolve each “blocker” preventing the build’s release.