Blender 3.0 Likely Delayed 2 Months For Post-Lockdown Breather, Cycles X Might Land

The wildly successful Blender 3D open-source modeling software has been working hard towards its Blender 3.0 release but will likely now be proactively delayed to allow developers more time to relax with COVID-19 lockdowns/restrictions loosening, the possibility of developer meetups pre-3.0, and letting more changes flow into this big feature release.

Blender Foundation chairman and CEO of the Blender Institute, Tom Roosendaal, shared that Blender 3.0 will likely be delayed by two months. Rather than trying to get Blender 3.0 in late summer, they now are going to try targeting late October.

With COVID-19 related restrictions loosening and more developers interested in meet-ups that can be made in-person while Blender 3.0 is on the final stretch, the consensus among the core developers is to slide the release two months further out. This would also allow developers to be more relaxed and possibly holidays heading out of the pandemic.

The good news out of this is with such a delay, it's likely the ongoing "Cycles X" work will hopefully land in time for the Blender 3.0 release in October. We'll see what other features might manage to squeeze into this 3.0 release with the extra time.