Paradox woes continue after Life by You cancellation, now with yet another "indefinite" Prison Architect 2 delay

Prison Architect 2 screenshot showing a cartoon-style prisoner behind black cell bars, wearing a bright orange outfit — (Image credit: Paradox Interactive)

Prison Architect 2 will no longer launch this September, as Paradox Interactive announces yet another delay for the hotly anticipated management sim sequel.

Revealed at the turn of 2024 by Paradox, Prison Architect 2 has already faced its fair share of delays. The game was initially set to launch in March, but was pushed back to May due to issues with "bugs" and the need to "further optimize the game for all platforms." In the spring, Paradox announced another delay to September - right before cutting ties with the sequel's developer Double Eleven after failing to "find a commercial agreement that worked for both parties."

Paradox had Double Eleven's co-developer Kokku take over work on Prison Architect 2, and things have seemed relatively stable since - until now, that is. "We have some difficult news to share," Paradox writes in a new statement detailing yet another delay. "Unfortunately, we will not release Prison Architect 2 on September 3rd because we need more time to improve both the game's performance and its content."

The announcement continues: "Our continuous internal reviews and beta test groups have highlighted areas that we need to focus on more, mainly performance and content, which we need to address before launch to ensure that you, the players, get a good experience in the game. We need to raise the quality a bit more to meet the standards we'd like to achieve with this sequel."

Despite quality concerns, Paradox says that it's "confident that the sequel to Prison Architect will be great" and wants "to make sure the game lives up to the franchise’s legacy." As for a new release date, there isn't one - the publisher calls this third delay "indefinite," explaining that it "can’t commit to a new release date as we need to re-assess the scope of the work needed to be done before the game is release-ready."

Perhaps most worryingly, Paradox also announces refunds for preorders on all platforms due to the "indefinite delay." With no new release date, incoming refunds, three delays, and recent debacles at Paradox like the Life by You cancellation, I personally can't help but be worried about Prison Architect 2's future.

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After spending years with her head in various fantastical realms' clouds, Anna studied English Literature and then Medieval History at the University of Edinburgh, going on to specialize in narrative design and video game journalism as a writer. She has written for various publications since her postgraduate studies, including Dexerto, Fanbyte, GameSpot, IGN, PCGamesN, and more. When she's not frantically trying to form words into coherent sentences, she's probably daydreaming about becoming a fairy druid and befriending every animal or she's spending a thousand (more) hours traversing the Underdark in Baldur's Gate 3. If you spot her away from her PC, you'll always find Anna with a fantasy book, a handheld video game console of some sort, and a Tamagotchi or two on hand.