Today, Frogwares announced that The Sinking City 2, their upcoming Lovecraftian survival horror game, will be shifting its release window to the first half of 2026.
While no official release date had been set before the game’s delay, the team had initially been aiming for a potential surprise 2025 launch and had even been hinting at that to fans. However, they’ve now decided it’s best to clearly communicate that they need to take more time to finish the game on their own terms.
The main reasons for this decision are the ongoing war in Ukraine and the significant genre shift the studio is undertaking with The Sinking City 2 compared to their previous titles.
Regarding the game’s delay, Sergiy Oganesyan, Head of Publishing at Frogwares, said:
Developing a game during a war isn’t something you can ever really prepare for, but something you need to keep adapting to. At one point, we were losing power for days as drones and missiles hit our power grid. When that tactic stopped working, it became mass drone swarms every other night, going from midnight until dawn. You work all day, then spend the sleepless night listening for explosions, and somehow still need to function the next morning.
These things all slowed us down regularly to the point where it just doesn’t make sense to try to rush what we have left to meet a date that we no longer feel is worth chasing. How moscow’s tactics to terrorize civilians will change again as winter comes is anyone’s guess, so we’d rather be ready to adapt again, knowing we’re able to take our time.
The studio also noted that developing a fully fledged survival horror game for the first time brings its own set of new learning curves.
Alexander Gresko, Lead Game Designer, Frogwares, elaborated, saying:
Switching to survival horror for the first time has been a whole new kind of challenge for us in itself, too. We’ve been making investigation adventures for more than twenty years, but survival horror asks for a completely different kind of design thinking. Tension, pacing, combat, etc.
We’ve always loved the genre as fans, but once you start building it yourself, you realize how much you still have to do. It’s exciting, but it definitely makes development slower.
The move to a 2026 release window does not come with an exact date, as the team acknowledges that circumstances can change at any moment.
Sergiy Oganesyan, Head of Publishing, Frogwares, said:
We don’t have an exact date set for 2026 yet, but we thought it was better to at least share what we do know. We’d rather be certain than announce something now only to move it again. Rest assured, we’re currently aiming for the first half of 2026, so it’s a matter of months, not years.
The team has also said they will be sharing a lot more from the game as it enters the final stages of production, with today’s news coming with thirteen new screenshots showcasing the game’s setting, enemies, and signature Lovecraftian atmosphere.
Anna Bieniek, Senior Social Media Manager, Frogwares, gave an update on the state of the game’s development:
Alongside the thirteen new screenshots shared today, we’ll also be showing a lot more gameplay over the next few months to let everyone see how development is going. The Sinking City 2 is the first time we’ve done big, private beta tests with our community so early in the development process, and their feedback has been instrumental in shaping the game.
Because of this, we’ve actually been a lot less stressed about showing stuff publicly to try to gauge reception. But we’re keen to now start showing more people what we’ve been working away on all this time.
ABOUT THE GAME:
The Sinking City 2 is a survival-horror game, set in a Lovecraftian 1920s United States. In the infamous city of Arkham, a supernatural flood has driven out all but the most deranged residents and brought decay and Eldritch monsters to the streets.
- Fight to Survive: Use an arsenal of 1920s-inspired firearms and melee weapons to fight against Eldritch-inspired admonitions.
- Explore The Decaying City of Arkham: A world of decaying mansions, flooded markets, and abandoned hospitals that you’ll explore on foot and by boat.
- Find and Use What You Can: Scrounge for limited resources and balance a finite inventory as you decide what to bring and what to leave behind.
- Choose to Investigate Further: Solve optional cases and puzzles that let you investigate your surroundings deeper to uncover secrets, alternate options, and more lore.
- A Twisted Lovecraftian Tale: Experience a morally grey and captivating story focused on personal loss and woven around the Lovecraftian mythos of cults, rituals, and incomprehensible creatures.
You can check out a slideshow of the new screenshots below.
