Prison Architect 2's release date has been delayed again, this time until September 2024, due to "new technical challenges," the developer has announced.
Paradox Interactive's sequel to its cult hit from 2015 is set to bring Prison Architect 2 to all platforms. Despite this, the developer, Double Eleven, is said to have run into some technical problems that will take a bit of time to resolve.
Prison Architect 2 Release Delay
(Photo : Double Eleven, Paradox Interactive / Screenshot taken from Steam)
These include some issues regarding memory usage and minimum spec configuration failures that emerged. While the team said that it was already finished working on fixing those problems, new technical problems started to show up, which led to significantly more crashes.
Double Eleven will not use the extra development time to improve the stability and refine some features of the prison management sim sequel. Paradox Interactive will also take advantage of the opportunity to let fans of the franchise get a sneak peek inside the development process.
This will be done via additional developer diaries and streams, one of which is scheduled for Apr. 25, 2024. Paradox Interactive also said that console players who pre-ordered the sequel will automatically be refunded due to platform policies, according to Engadget.
They will then have to buy Prison Architect 2 again in order to get a pre-order bonus when the game launches in full. On the other hand, Steam players can request a refund if they want to do so.
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The delay of the release of Prison Architect 2 comes a day after studio Colossal Order said that it would be refunding all of the players who bought the first asset pack for Cities Skylines 2. This is another game that Paradox Interactive is publishing.
While the asset pack worked fine, there appeared to have been a consensus among fans that there was not enough in it to justify its price of $10. However, there are bigger problems as Colossal Order has more work ahead before they can optimize Cities Skylines 2 after a problematic debut.
New Technical Challenges
Double Eleven explained that they decided to delay the release of Prison Architect 2 so that they could ship the best possible sequel to such a beloved game to players without cutting corners, said PCGamer.
The company's statement also went so far as to offer a more detailed explanation of how the developers decided on the delay. While the extra development time will be used to address the issues, Double Eleven will also further improve existing features that can be improved.
Some have wondered whether or not Paradox Interactive is playing it safe following the Cities Skylines 2 launch controversy. The city-building game was riddled with bugs and performance issues, causing it to receive a "mixed" review rating on Steam.
The issues surrounding Cities Skylines 2 also prompted Paradox Interactive to take a more conservative approach to try and avoid disappointing another game audience.
It was previously said that they would not release a DLC for the city-building game until the base version was fixed. However, the first paid DLC was so messy that fans of the franchise slammed it for not delivering what it promised, according to Rock Paper Shotgun.
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