For those of us who absolutely loved the action-roguelike Hades, the sequel will surely be the highlight of 2024. When Supergiant Games announced it would create a sequel to one of its games for the first time ever, gamers rejoiced at the fact it was its most recent offering. Hades is critically acclaimed, loved by gamers, and just a flat-out good game.
We can only hope Hades 2 will be more of the same. Hopefully, taking the ideal route for a sequel, the God of War Ragnarok route. What we mean by that is everything about the game, mechanics, combat, visuals, everything, is better. Since the original game was so good, that seems like an impossible task. Supergiant certainly has a tall order to fill with expectations so high. But that leaves the question on all of our minds, what is the release date of Hades 2?
Supergiant Games announces Hades 2 early access release date
According to a recent development update from the creators of Hades 2, Supergiant Games, early access starts in 2024. The only other detail the studio has offered is that early access will begin sometime during Q2 of 2024. That means we’ll get our hands on the Hades sequel sometime between April and the end of June.
It’s only the second week of January, so we’re not even close to knowing the release dates of every game that will come out in 2024, there are none scheduled so far for May. According to GameSpot, there are four game releases scheduled for April, zero for May, and two for June. The titles that are scheduled to come out during Q2 are generally not “major” releases, so Hades 2 would likely dominate during any part of the quarter. The only truly big release is Destiny 2’s The Final Shape expansion. Although that’s undoubtedly a big title to release during June, it’s an expansion, and will mostly only occupy the attention of Destiny 2 players who wouldn’t pick up another game anyway.
To summarize, there really isn’t a bad time during Q2 for Supergiant to unleash its next game on us. We hope it’s sooner than later, so April sounds good.
Which platforms is Hades 2 Early Access available on?
Another key part of the developer’s early access Hades 2 announcement is platform availability. Unfortunately, it will not come to consoles during the initial early access release. Supergiant explicitly stated that the early access Hades 2 release during Q2 2024 will be available on Steam and the Epic Games Store. You know what that means, non-PC gamers! Fire up your old Windows laptop that can barely run Runescape and play Hades 2 in 13 FPS. Just kidding, but for diehard fans who only play on consoles, it might be worth it.
The good news is that Hades 2 in Early Access “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.” While Hades 2 will not be a complete game upon EA release, there will be plenty of content to enjoy while the devs finish polishing our beloved roguelike.
It’s also worth mentioning there will be an earlier-than-early-access technical test for a small number of players prior to the early access release. This testing will take place “shortly before we launch in Early Access,” Supergiant says. As a result, you can expect it to take place sometime during Q2 as well, but few players will get to participate and content will be much more limited than in the early access release.
Until then, we’ll just have to keep playing as Zagreus, trying to complete runs of the original Hades and waiting for more.