Prison Architect 2 Release Date Delayed Again

Prison Architect 2 from Double Eleven and Paradox Interactive is still coming out this year, but it's not going to be hitting the May release date the creators previously set for it. Instead, the game is now due out several months later on September 3rd. This delay is the second one the game's been hit with this year with the first pushing Prison Architect 2 from February to May, so this second delay is a bit more substantial.

What's perhaps more surprising than the back-to-back delays so close to one another is the fact that Paradox and Double Eleven said the pair already had certified builds of Prison Architect 2 ready to release on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. Expanding the issue that cause the delay and providing some neat insight into the game development process, the creators explained why the game's been pushed back again.

"With the release date getting closer, we carried out further testing on the final build using multiple configurations to verify its stability," a post from the Prison Architect 2 team explained. "These tests result in a MBTF (mean time between failure) report, the method used to get this result is playing the game until a failure arises. A failure can mean a variety of things, for example, a crash, freeze, or other play-halting issues. In this report, we noticed that on specific configurations the game was not hitting our MTBF target, with this being particularly true for minimum specs configurations."

Memory usage was subsequently improved after these tests helped determine issues, but new problems and separate game failures arose. In light of those problems, the creators made the call to delay the game to further work on stability concerns.

Prison Architect fans who were looking forward to the sequel won't be left without anything between now and September, however. Paradox and Double Eleven said the time between now and the new release date will consist of more streams and dev diaries with a new stream scheduled for April 25th, for example. If you'd like to keep your preorder between now and the September release, you'll have the option to refund it via Steam if you bought it there, but console players who preordered on the Xbox or PlayStation platforms will get an instant refund.

"Additionally, console players will receive an automated refund – as per platform policy. Pre-orders will still be available, but you will need to purchase the game again to secure the pre-order bonus," the Prison Architect 2 team said. "Steam players who wish to refund their game can use the refund option via Customer support. We know this is a long wait but we'll be with you all the way to release and we know this will give you a better game experience in the end."

Prison Architect 2 will now release for the Xbox, PlayStation, and PC platforms on September 4th.