Supergiant Games, the company behind Hades and Bastion, has revealed that it will launch Hades II into Early Access in the second quarter of 2024 on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store. The company stopped short of revealing a concrete date, though.
Supergiant announced Hades II during The Video Game Awards 2022 last December, with plans to launch it into Early Access. This is the same strategy they took with the first Hades before its critically acclaimed 1.0 launch in 2020 on PC and Switch and 2021 on PlayStation and Xbox. Now, roughly nine months later, Supergiant has released a development update about the highly anticipated sequel, which is where it revealed the Q2 2024 Early Access launch window.
“Thank you for your patience as we gear up for this launch,” Supergiant writes in the development update. “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.”
You can wishlist Hades II on Steam and the Epic Games Store today. Supergiant will have more details on the exact Early Access date, pricing, and system requirements closer to launch.
Before that Early Access launch, though, but still in Q2 2024, Supergiant will hold a technical test with a limited sample of players. It says this test aims to find and solve any technical or compatibility issues it might have missed to ensure anyone who tries Hades II in Early Access can have a smooth play experience. This technical test will “contain much less content than what’s in store for the Early Access launch.” It will be limited to a relatively small subset of players who have already expressed interest in participating.
Supergiant says following Hades II’s Early Access launch, it will have several major updates adding the rest of the game’s core content and refining what’s there based on player feedback. The story will expand with each update, as will the number of characters and your relationships with them. The entire Early Acess period will culminate in a 1.0 launch, featuring the conclusion of the game’s story and finishing touches. The studio says it does not know how long it will take for Hades II to reach a 1.0 launch.
“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,” the update concludes. “Thank you again for your patience and support as we work to ensure our first sequel meets our standards, and hopefully yours, too.”
While waiting for the Early Access launch, check out the Hades II reveal trailer and then read Game Informer’s Hades review.
Are you going to play Hades II in Early Access? Let us know in the comments below!
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