Out of the blue, acclaimed indie developer Supergiant Games announced that its Greek mythology-themed roguelike sequel Hades II will make its early access debut in “Q2 2024,” meaning it’ll arrive sometime between April and June next year.
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Supergiant Games posted a blog on its website delivering the news. The game’s Early Access period is planned for PC via the Epic Games Store and Steam. If you were hoping for an exact release date, pricing details, or system requirements, you’re SOL, as the studio said this information will come “closer to [the game’s launch] time.” Sit back and relax, we’ll be waiting a while here.
“Thank you for your patience as we gear up for this launch,” Supergiant Games wrote in the official blog post on its website. “You may be wondering, why can’t we launch in Early Access, like, right now?! The game looked pretty far along in the first trailer! The reason is, Hades II will have at least as much content from day one in Early Access as the original game did back when it launched in Early Access on Steam. And, even though Early Access inherently means a game is not yet complete, we still want to do everything we can to make sure Hades II is worth your while as soon as you can play it in any capacity.”
Before Hades II’s Early Access launch, though, Supergiant Games plans to run a “technical test with a limited sample of players.” The goal for the studio here is to find any compatibility or technical issues that might have been missed before the game becomes available to a wider audience. While it’s unclear exactly how people will gain access to the game’s technical test whenever it goes live, Supergiant Games confirmed that it will “contain much less content” than what’s currently planned for Hades II’s Early Access launch early next year.
The studio also talked about how “vitally important” Early Access was for Hades, and how the same development cadence will ensure Hades II gets to the finish line. The development timeframe will allow the studio to hit that “sweet spot” in which, thanks to player feedback via Early Access, the game will be far enough long to iron out issues but not finalized to where it’d be impossible to address the criticisms Supergiant Games might receive. In particular, “several major updates” will hit the game throughout its Early Access period that’ll expand the story, introduce new characters, and deepen their relationships. It’ll all end with Hades II’s official launch, though that’s definitely a long way off.
“We don’t yet know exactly how long it will take us to get to v1.0 of Hades II, as our experience developing in Early Access has taught us (among many things) to expect the unexpected,” Supergiant Games wrote. “For now, our focus is to keep building core content—environments, characters, weapons, Boons, story events, music, and more—as we gear up for our Technical Test and Early Access launch in Q2 this coming year. Thank you again for your patience and support as we work to ensure our first sequel meets our standards, and hopefully yours, too!”
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So yeah, it might be a long while before non-PC gamers get the chance to play Hades II, but hey, at least we all finally have an idea of when it’s coming, right?
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