‘Hades II’ creative director Greg Kasavin has confirmed the game will stay in early access “at least through the end of this year”.
The title - which was developed by Supergiant Games - launched earlier this month (06.05.24) in early access form, and the creative director has now admitted he doesn’t expect to see the game get a full release until 2025 because the studio wants to perfect their work.
Speaking to PC Gamer, he said: “In the short run, we plan to deploy at least a couple of relatively small patches to improve parts of the game where we can think of short-term improvements that alleviate issues we've heard from some players, while hopefully making the game even better for those already pleased with it.
“Then, we'll focus on our first Major Update, which will take us several months during which the game won't be updated. This Major Update will include new features, locations, foes, and other content. Then we'll patch that a few times to shore up any issues, and repeat this broader process ... until we consider the game complete! We expect to be in early access at least through the end of this year.”
The title, which is a sequel to the 2020 role-playing-game, follows Melinoë - the immortal daughter of the god Hades - who is determined to defeat Chronos, the Titan of Time.
While the game is still in early access, the team have been tweaking gameplay mechanics, but Kasavin emphasised Supergiant didn’t want to deviate too far from what had come before.
He explained: “In developing our first-ever sequel, we had to think carefully about what we felt truly defined a ‘Hades’ game.
“One such factor is for the game to have immediate, responsive action players can dive right into quickly and intuitively.
“At the same time, we want for players to experience a strong sense of discovery, even if they've played the original game extensively.
“Melinoë felt like the key to achieving this, as well as to another vital aspect of ‘Hades’: for the story to revolve around the big dysfunctional family that is the Olympian gods, from the Underworld's point of view.”
