The Sinking City 2 has been pushed into 2026, the developer says, after a mix of war-related disruptions in Ukraine and the extra time needed to turn the series into a full survival-horror experience. Frogwares originally announced The Sinking City 2 in 2024 and had been aiming for a 2025 release, but the studio says that schedule no longer makes sense given real-world and creative challenges. The studio pointed to prolonged power outages and repeated drone attacks that affected staff safety, routines, and the practical ability to work on the game.
“Developing a game during a war isn’t something you can ever really prepare for, but something you need to keep adapting to,” said Frogwares’ head of publishing, Sergiy Oganesyan, describing nights spent listening for explosions and the intermittent loss of electricity. The studio framed the pause as a deliberate choice to avoid rushing the remaining work.
The delay is also about design. Lead designer Alexander Gresko said the team’s move from investigation-focused adventures into a proper survival-horror game required “a completely different kind of design thinking” and that building that new approach has slowed progress. The studio described the shift as both a passion project and a technical challenge, since survival-horror systems, resource balance, enemy pacing, audio and lighting that actually scare, demand different priorities than the team’s prior titles.
This kind of slowdown isn’t unheard of; creative teams repeatedly cautioned against faster, cheaper game-making in recent coverage, noting that bite-size schedules can hurt the final product and studio health. For a deeper look at those industry warnings, see the director of Baldur’s Gate 3 urging caution.
The studio has shared teaser material and a short description of the new direction; interested readers can view Frogwares’ earlier reveal and the teaser coverage on PC Gamer’s Sinking City 2 hub. If Frogwares stays with the new timeline it should give the team more room to finish systems and tuning rather than meet a forced calendar date. Keep an eye on official Frogwares updates for a specific launch window and platform details.
