11 bit Studios has delayed the launch of Frostpunk 2 from July 25 until September 20.
The developer made this decision regarding its highly anticipated postapocalyptic city-builder based on feedback from the beta held earlier this year. Although the reception was positive, with 11 bit revealing that the average rating players gave the beta in surveys was 8 out of 10, it wants to rework and implement some features based on feedback and needs more time to do so.
Jakub Stokalski and Łukasz Juszczyk, Frostpunk 2’s game directors, went into more detail on what some of these improvements are in the Steam blog post announcing the delay. On the game-mechanic front, 11 bit Studios will add things like “direct-use abilities” that players can react to crises with, the ability to reshape districts after construction, a “resource to make city-building and expansion more strategic,” and more. It will rework aspects of Frostpunk 2’s heat, faction, workforce management, and protest systems as well.
Improvements to Frostpunk 2’s user interface and general user experience are on the way. This includes making the heads-up display “clearer and more intuitive,” implementing a dedicated construction menu and new city hubs, and improving the readability of the Idea Tree. Finally, Frostpunk 2 will also receive a new feature not in the beta called “Zoom Stories,” which you can see in action above, that will allow players to zoom into parts of the city and watch its inhabitants at work.
The PC version of Frostpunk 2 will now come out September 20. It will be on PC Game Pass from day one, and console versions for Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 are also in the works and will launch at a yet-to-be-announced date in the future.
