With Hollow Knight: Silksong finally released, attention is turning onto other much-anticipated indie games; namely Hades 2 and Slay the Spire 2. The latter is the upcoming sequel to one of the most influential card-battling games ever made, and developers are feeling the squeeze of pressure as they announce a delay for the title’s release.
Developer Megacrit has announced the new early access Slay the Spire 2 release date will be in March 2026 – a shift from the originally unspecified window of late 2025.
Slay the Spire 2 Release Date Delay
Megacrit announced the delay on Steam, where they addressed a few expected questions, including whether or not the delay was really due to the release of Silksong (it wasn’t).
Instead of having one singular reason to point to as a cause of the delay, Megacrit has cited an accumulation of factors, such as personal issues members of the team were facing, project scope creep and a feeling that the game wasn’t up to the standard of quality they were hoping for.
The Early Access Strategy
This, of course, isn’t the first game to adopt an early access release strategy, and while it’s one that some audiences might view with scepticism, it’s also one that’s had a lot of proven success in the past.
The aforementioned Hades 2 is currently in this window and has already received a great deal of praise, but it can be easy to forget that Baldur’s Gate 3 also was released in early access for many years before the full game launched in 2023.
Redefined For a Modern Landscape
With the original Slay the Spire being such a foundational title for indie games and the card-battling genre, it puts the sequel in a precarious position.
Releasing in 2019, the genre has been replicated in the indie landscape, with titles like Balatro recently proving to be another foundational chapter in the rogue-like card story.
Even though it would have only been seven years – not that long in the grand scheme of gaps between sequels – the gaming landscape has evolved, and it might not be enough for the second game to simply be more of the same, if it’s hoping to have the same level of impact as the first.
Though, an effective enough refinement to the formula could be just as impactful as a more dramatic overhaul of core systems.
