I've been tracking their commits and honestly, Google is notoriously slow when it involves their safety filters and compute scaling. If you need the resolution promised in 4.0 for a mid-December deadline, you're cutting it way too thin. They usually wait for I/O or a dedicated AI event, and there is nothing on the calendar before your project starts. VEO's main holdup is likely the temporal consistency at 4K which still looks a bit trippy in the private betas. If you've got $1500 to play with, you should definitely branch out now. Here are a couple of tools that actually work for high-end commercial pipelines:

• Runway Gen-3 Alpha Turbo Plan is probably the industry standard for consistency right now.
• Kling AI 1.5 High Quality Tier handles human movement with way less morphing than what you see in the current VideoFX build.
• Pika 1.5 Professional Plan is decent if you need specific physics-based shots for products. Dont get stuck in the ecosystem trap... better to have a finished project on another platform than a half-baked one on Google. Let me know if you need help with the API side for any of those.

Maybe in this Summer 2026.

Honestly, nobody really knows the exact date for VEO 3.5 or 4 yet. Google is being super quiet like they usually are before a big shift. I would suggest not waiting around if your project is in December... thats cutting it way too close for comfort. It sucks because the Gemini integration is so smooth, but the timeline is just a guessing game right now. Ive spent a lot of time testing these lately and you might want to consider these backups:

• Runway Gen-3 Alpha High Fidelity is my current go-to. The temporal consistency is solid, but be careful with the pricing tiers because those high-res exports eat credits fast.
• Luma AI Dream Machine Pro is another one Ive had success with. Its great for realism, but make sure to double check the physics in your previews because it gets a bit wonky on complex shots. I would personally pivot now just to be safe. If you need any help with the workflow transitions let me know!

> Honestly, nobody really knows the exact date for... I get the frustration but honestly, in my experience, waiting for a release date from Google is a losing game. Ive spent years watching these cycles and they almost always prioritize safety tweaks over actual usability when they finally do drop something. You really shouldnt keep your project on hold for tech that doesnt exist yet. My advice? Just go with Runway. You can pretty much pick any of their high-end options and get the reliability you need right now. I dont think its worth the stress of tracking commits when you could be getting work done with a platform that actually has its stuff together. Just get a subscription with Runway and call it a day, honestly.