Sons of the Forest will release in Early Access rather than be delayed again
"We didn’t want to delay again."
After "one last" delay for Sons of the Forest late last year, developer Endnight Games has announced the horror will release in Early Access at the end of this month rather than be delayed again.
Endnight says it's made the decision to release in early access in order to "involve the community in the continued development of this project" - which it says led to the "massive success" of predecessor The Forest - whilst also "keep[ing its] 23rd February release date".
"It’s been a long journey since we first started Sons of The Forest development, and it’s grown into the biggest, most complex game we have ever made," the team said in a statement posted on Steam.
"There is still so much more we want to add; items, new mechanics, gameplay balance and more. We didn't want to delay again, so have instead decided to involve the community in the continued development of this project and keep our February 23rd release date but instead release in Early Access.
"The Forest turned out to be a massive success, due mostly to the awesome community and the suggestions, feedback, and bug reports the players shared with us," the statement concludes. "We are really excited and hope that players want to come on this new journey with us to make this the ultimate survival horror simulator."
Sons of the Forest is the direct sequel to Endnight's well-received The Forest, which got its version 1.0 release in 2018 after four years in early access. As Ed describes, it combined the survival genre's penchant for scavenging and crafting with genuinely unnerving horror as protagonist Eric Leblanc searched the titular, cannibal-infested forest for his son following a harrowing plane crash.
Sons of the Forest, which this time sees players tracking down a missing billionaire on a remote island, was originally due to launch in May last year, but Endnight made the decision to postpone its release to October in order to deliver its "vision of the next step in survival games".