Sons of the Forest from Endnight Games is still coming out on time on February 23, but the release plans have changed. Instead of that date marking the game’s full release, it’s instead the day it launches into early access. The developer announced the decision this week, saying it is taking this route to get the game into players’ hands when people expected it and avoid having to delay the game again.
News of the game’s revised launch plans was shared on the Steam page for Sons of the Forest and was also featured on the developer’s socials. Endnight Games looked back at the development of Sons of the Forest – the studio’s first game since the surprise hit The forest released in 2018 – and said there’s more to do, but the creators wanted to keep the February 23 release date.
“It’s been a long journey since we first started developing ‘Sons of The Forest’ and it’s grown into the biggest and most complex game we’ve ever made,” said Endnight. “There is so much more we want to add – items, new mechanics, gameplay balance and more. We didn’t want to delay again, so instead we decided to involve the community in the further development of this project and our 23 February release date but release in Early Access instead.”
Endnight continued to look back on the success of The forest while its sequel is hailed as the “ultimate survival horror experience.”
“‘The Forest’ turned out to be a huge success, mainly due to the great community and the suggestions, feedback and bug reports that the players shared with us,” continued Endnight. “We are very excited and hope players will join us on this new journey to make this the ultimate survival horror simulator.”
Endnight has only occasionally offered players an update on the game during the development process with gameplay clips and less impactful news items like this being shared on a regular basis. The game was originally set to release on May 20, 2022 and was later pushed back to October 2022. It also missed that time frame and was pushed back to February 23 last August.
