The Sinking City 2 Delayed to 2026

Frogwares has announced that The Sinking City 2, its upcoming Lovecraftian survival horror game, will now release sometime in 2026. The studio previously revealed the first gameplay teaser earlier this year — you can read our breakdown here.

The studio, best known for the Sherlock Holmes games and the original The Sinking City, had been hinting at a possible 2025 release. But with development slowed by the ongoing war in Ukraine and the challenge of switching genres, the team says it’s taking extra time to finish the game properly.

“Developing a game during a war isn’t something you can ever really prepare for,” said Sergiy Oganesyan, Head of Publishing at Frogwares. “At one point, we were losing power for days as drones and missiles hit our power grid. Then came the mass drone swarms every other night. You work all day, then spend sleepless nights listening for explosions, and somehow still need to function the next morning. It just doesn’t make sense to rush what we have left to meet a date we no longer feel is worth chasing.”

Beyond the realities of working through a war, The Sinking City 2 is also Frogwares’ first fully-fledged survival horror game, marking a big departure from their investigative roots.

“Switching to survival horror for the first time has been a whole new kind of challenge for us,” said Lead Game Designer Alexander Gresko. “We’ve been making investigation adventures for more than twenty years, but survival horror asks for a completely different kind of design thinking — tension, pacing, combat, everything. It’s exciting, but it definitely makes development slower.”

While there’s no confirmed release date yet, Frogwares says it’s currently aiming for the first half of 2026.

“We’d rather be certain than announce something now only to move it again,” Oganesyan explained. “Rest assured, it’s a matter of months, not years.”

To go with the news, Frogwares released 13 new screenshots showcasing the game’s eerie environments, monstrous enemies, and signature Lovecraftian atmosphere – you can check them out below.