Just four short weeks ago, Outward 2 developer Nine Dots Studio announced that its highly anticipated co-op survival RPG would arrive in early access on July 7, 2026. It then followed that up by dropping an open beta (which is still on until June 22) during Summer Game Fest. Now, however, the studio has revealed it needs more time to deliver the quality players expect. A lot more time, actually, since Outward 2 won't arrive until 2027, now.
The delay was revealed with a post on the game's Steam page, which shared a statement from Nine Dots Studios' chief executive officer and creative director, Guillaume Boucher-Vidal, who Wccftech spoke to back in 2024 about Outward 2.
Boucher-Vidal begins the statement by addressing the elephant in the room, which is that everyone still has the release date announcement fresh in their minds, and we're suddenly not getting the full early access release until next year.
It's the kind of turnaround that makes you think the studio went ahead with the release date trailer out of potential SGF obligations despite the core team knowing its July date wasn't realistic. Or, this could be a quick response to player feedback, and the discovery of a slew of issues after some time running the open beta.
Whatever the answer, Boucher-Vidal doesn't cite one specific element, and instead insists that ultimately, he and the team established that the state of Outward 2 is at the quality bar that they'd be comfortable charging money for it.
"I know that this might seem sudden as not that long ago we released a trailer inviting people to explore Aurai during summer, but the truth is that if we just stick to the plan stubbornly, we're delivering a product that might not satisfy your expectations," Boucher-Vidal says.
"Dropping this news is especially painful knowing that some of our most dedicated players actually planned their summer break around the release date It sucks for you and I personally apologize to everyone affected this way," he continues. "However, it would be even worse if you ended up playing something over your vacation that you were not even happy with."
"It's hard to gauge what is the appropriate degree of stability expected for Early Access. The best we can do is take a hard, honest look at the game, and at our team, and ask: in a few weeks, will this be good enough to charge money for? Our aim is to have such a stark jump between this Beta and the Early Access launch that we earn the trust of our players. You were there for the first Outward and that's why we were successful. We want you to be happy to be there again for Outward 2."
There's also the possibility that Nine Dots Studio is looking at the tea leaves for 2026 and how jam-packed the rest of the year is, and thought it would be best to try and avoid as much of the coming mess as possible. Either way, players enjoying the beta might as well play as much of it as they can now, before they're waiting until 2027 to get more of Outward 2.
About the author: David has been writing about videogames, technology, and culture since 2020, with a focus on reporting daily news across multiple publications, including GameDaily.Biz, GameSkinny, and PlayStation Universe before joining Wccftech in 2025. David started contributing as Canada/US reporter for Wccftech's gaming section in 2025. Besides being up-to-date on the industry's movements, he loves interviewing developers, reviewing games, and writing intricate essays about the symbolism and layered meanings to be found in rich narratives as he's done for publications like GamesIndustry.Biz, LostInCult, and others. Outside of games he loves movies, music, theatre, his hometown, and his family, though not necessarily in that order.
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