Just one month away from release, Prison Architect 2 has been postponed indefinitely, publisher Paradox Entertainment has announced.
This is the third time the game has been delayed this year. It was originally set to release on PS5, Xbox Series S/X, and PC on March 26, but was later pushed back to May 7 and then to September 3.
This time, however, the sequel to 2015’s Prison Architect has not revealed a new release date.
As early as May this year, news broke that Double Eleven and Paradox, the developers of Prison Architect and Prison Architect 2, were parting ways due to their inability to “find a business agreement that would benefit both parties moving forward.”
As a result, Prison Architect 2 has been entirely handed over to Kokku, a Brazilian studio that has actually been developing the game with Double Eleven since the fall of 2023.
“We have some bad news to share: unfortunately, we will not be releasing Prison Architect 2 on September 3rd as we need more time to improve the game’s performance and content,” Kokku said on the Paradox forums Said when posting. “Our ongoing internal reviews and beta testing group have highlighted areas where we need more focus, primarily performance and content, and we need to address these issues before launch to ensure you, the players, have a great experience with the game. We The quality needs to improve further to meet the standards we hope to achieve with this sequel.
“At this stage, we are unable to commit to a new release date as we need to reassess the scope of work that needs to be completed before the game is ready for release.”
According to the team, communication will be limited until they settle on a timeline they are “comfortable with.”
In a brief Q&A below the announcement, the team confirmed that all existing pre-orders for the game will be canceled and refunded in the coming weeks, and that all pre-order bonuses will not be put into the game for everyone to enjoy.
With the original developer leaving some time on the eve of the game’s release and now delaying it indefinitely, the future of Prison Architect has a grim feel to it. But Kakku is eager to calm fears, saying; “No, the game is not canceled. We are confident in the game, but we want high quality before release, mainly performance.
This is another blow to Paradox, which has struggled over the past few years.
Earlier this year, Life by You was delayed by Paradox from its planned early access release by two weeks, citing the need for “additional development time.” Soon after, the game was canceled entirely and the 24-person studio that developed it was shut down.
Last October, Paradox launched Cities Skylines 2 to disastrous results, with the game plagued by performance issues. Even now, the game still has a ton of issues, resulting in a “mixed” rating on Steam. Paradox will undoubtedly be looking to ensure that its reputation does not suffer this kind of damage again.
On top of that, Paradox parted ways with the developers after Lamplighters League underperformed, and Bloodlines 2 development has been a mess so far. The result of all this chaos was a 90% drop in Paradox’s operating profits, a large part of which was due to the cancellation of Life by You.
