Oxenfree fans got some sad news today. Oxenfree II: Lost Signals has been delayed again to sometime in 2023. While the upcoming sequel was announced in April 2021 with the intention to be released the same year, it has been even further delayed for a good reason: it just isn’t ready yet.
This has been a pretty common occurrence lately. Big games with eager fans are stepping up to say they are going to choose to take the time to work on their project until it meets their vision for it. With more and more push to rid the gaming world of grind culture and with the tumultuous shifting in remote and in-person work, delays are just going to happen. In this case, Nigh School Studios mentioned some specific attributes of the game that they wanted to work on a little longer. You can find their quote below.
“We owe it to our amazing community to make Oxenfree II: Lost Signals the best game it can possibly be. Seeing your fan art, reading your excited comments, and connecting with your fuels our ambition to make this our best game yet. To make Oxenfree II truly special and add more localizations, we’re moving our release window to 2023. Thank you for your patience, support, and understanding. We can’t wait to share the game with you. Stay tuned!“
This announcement was made via Twitter. The studio mentions fan art and comments describing how excited we all are, which goes a long way in buying patience. They care about their game and our reactions to it. The top fan comments on the post at the time of this writing were also really supportive. One fan flat-out said, “Take your time!” You can find the original Tweet below.
Night School Studio was acquired by Netflix in September 2021 so that they can continue to make more unique titles with the streaming giant’s support. Maybe this influx of support allowed the team to dream even bigger than before because they specified that they intend to make Oxenfree II: Lost Signals even bigger and better than the first. They added more ways for the story to end as well as more places to visit. The studio said that they hope the sequel will “make your journey through the story feel all the more personal and unique.”
The game takes place five years after the events of Oxenfree. Riley is called home again as electromagnetic interference has caused major communication disruptions. Strange things occur in the small coastal town, and Riley will have to put a stop to a cult that thinks opening a portal to another reality is a good idea. As a narrative-driven game, your choices will matter and add up to a variety of endings.
You can add Oxenfree II: Lost Signals to your wishlist on Steam now to show your support and get updates on the game. It will be available to play on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation4, and PlayStation 5 when it is all polished and ready for us to enjoy.
