Developer Supergiant Games announced that it's working on Hades 2 back at The Games Awards in 2022. As Supergiant's first true sequel, many were incredibly excited to see how the team could build on the original game which dominated awards season when it launched in 2020. When it was announced, it wasn't clear when Hades 2 would launch, but Supergiant did say that it was going to use early access once again. Today, the team finally gave fans a release window to look forward to, announcing that Hades 2 is coming to early access during Q2 2024.

Unfortunately, we didn't get a firm release date, but that window tells us we'll be able to see what Supergiant has cooking next spring. Supergiant also announced that Hades 2 will have "at least as much content" at launch as the original game had when it launched into early access. There will be tons more added as Hades 2 progresses, but Supergiant wants to make sure that the game "is worth your while" even in its early state. The team also announced that there will be a technical test ahead of early access, though this will be very limited, so invites will likely be very rare.

HADES II Development Update! 💀🌒🌕🌘💀

We've been making steady progress since our reveal at The Game Awards, and getting close to an Early Access launch some months from now, in Q2 2024.

More details and answers to your questions here:https://t.co/qioX4wKUuU pic.twitter.com/GomZuQLPyF

— Supergiant Games (@SupergiantGames) September 14, 2023

Hades 2 is in a weird spot because it's a sequel to a very successful game. Many times, devs wouldn't use early access in a scenario like that, though it isn't unheard of. In fact, Rogue Legacy 2 used a similar path when it launched a few years ago. That said, Supergiant is coming into Hades 2 mostly knowing what fans want from the game because of the original's early access and post-launch periods. With that, you might expect Hades 2 to have a very short early access period.

At this point, Supergiant isn't saying how long Hades 2 will be in early access. Instead, they're telling fans that the first game's early access taught them "to expect the unexpected." All Supergiant is saying now is that it will drop "several Major Updates" over the course of early access which will add core content and implement player feedback.

That's probably the right approach to take with something as highly anticipated as Hades 2. Getting it out there for fans to dig into and then using that feedback during development should help the game live up to expectations. Remember, the original game was in early access for almost two years before it officially launched. It seems unlikely that Hades 2 will be in early access for that long, but you never know with video game development.

Hades 2 is set to launch in early access during Q2 2024 on PC via Steam and the Epic Game Store. Like the original, it will eventually be ported to consoles after the full launch. Console platforms haven't been officially announced, but the original game to PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox platforms, so the assumption is that it will come to everything.

Posted: Sep 18, 2023 1:45 pm
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/hades-2-early-access-release-window-confirmed/