Hades 2 will debut in early access next spring

It’s been a long nine months since Supergiant Games announced Hades 2, the sequel to Polygon’s 2020 Game of the Year Hades. On Thursday, the developer finally broke its silence and offered an update on the game: Hades 2 will release in Early Access on Steam and the Epic Games Store in Q2 of 2024, somewhere between April and June of next year.

“You may be wondering, why can’t we launch in Early Access, like, right now?!,” the developer wrote in a blog post. “The reason is, Hades 2 will have at least as much content from day one in Early Access as the original game did back when it launched in Early Access on Steam. And, even though Early Access inherently means a game is not yet complete, we still want to do everything we can to make sure Hades II is worth your while as soon as you can play it in any capacity.”

In the same blog post, Supergiant announced that it will be running a technical test with a limited sample of players shortly before the game’s Early Access launch and, like with the Early Access development of 2020’s Hades, Hades 2’s Early Access release will feature several major updates featuring core content and gameplay refinements based on player feedback.

“We don’t yet know exactly how long it will take us to get to v1.0 of Hades 2,” Supergiant elaborated. “For now, our focus is to keep building core content — environments, characters, weapons, Boons, story events, music, and more — as we gear up for our Technical Test and Early Access launch in Q2 this coming year.”

Hades 2 will center on Melinoë, the Princess of the Underworld and sister to Hades’ protagonist Zagreus, as she embarks on a journey to save her father from Chronos, the Titan of Time. Along the way, Melinoë will rely on the aid of her mentor Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, as well as other Olympian gods and heroes.