Telltale Games has delayed The Wolf Among Us 2, pushing its launch on PC via the Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X | S to sometime after 2023. The studio explained in a statement that it is all for the betterment of the team and the game.
“We started work on this in 2020 and we’re still determined to tell the ongoing story of Bigby and the rest of the Fabletown gang,” said Telltale. “However, it is going to require more time. As disappointed as you are hearing this, we feel worse having to say it.”
We’ve made the difficult decision to delay The Wolf Among Us 2 #TWAU2.
To give more context, we spoke with IGN: https://t.co/afoCUHZwIy pic.twitter.com/KhrAfIrwYB
— Telltale (@telltalegames) March 1, 2023
Telltale shared more details about why The Wolf Among Us 2 was delayed in an interview with IGN. It’s true that the studio is hoping the push will allow it to better avoid a stressful environment for the team, but it’s also more complicated than that. Telltale CEO Jamie Ottilie explained that the team recently made the decision to switch development from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5. The latter is expected to afford more creative opportunities, but it also means that much of the work will need to be redone. So, with a new engine supporting The Wolf Among Us 2, Telltale would need to either crunch or release an unfinished game if it wanted to hit the original 2023 deadline.
“If we put this game out and it’s not ready, we’re going to get torn to shreds,” Ottilie said. “The expectations are pretty high, and we want time to meet those and we want to be proud of it and know that, ‘Hey, this is the best game we could have made.’ Let the world say what they will [once] it’s done, but at least we know that in these times, in these conditions, this is the best game that we could make.”
Outside of this major shift, Telltale seems confident in the story The Wolf Among Us 2 will tell. Just as with its predecessor, the sequel will tell an episodic tale. However, development on all episodes will be completed by the time the initial launch rolls around. So, while we now have a longer wait to see how the story of Bigby Wolf will continue, it’s good to know that his story is in caring hands.
