Telltale Games has announced that the upcoming sequel to episodic narrative game The Wolf Among Us, The Wolf Among Us 2, has been delayed to 2024, stating that the game will “require more time,” and that “the expectations are pretty high, and we want time to meet those” The Wolf Among Us 2 will launch for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC via the Epic Games Store.
Speaking to IGN, Telltale Games CEO Jamie Ottilie expanded further on the delay:
“If we put this game out and it’s not ready, we’re going to get torn to shreds. 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.
I’ve done [crunch], and I don’t want to do it again, and it’s not fair to ask it,” Ottilie said. “You can’t plan a business around it. So yeah, part of it is about maintaining a healthy work culture. We don’t want to burn out our good people. It has been incredibly difficult to recruit the last two years between COVID and the labor markets and the growth in the games industry. So certainly, burning people out or grinding them down is the wrong thing to do long-term. It’s not how you build a business. And as an industry, we’re terrible about it. We burn our people out. We burn our best people out faster. And as an industry, if we’re going to continue to grow, we have to stop it. We just have to stop doing it and make better choices.”
The full statement via Telltale Games regarding the delay:
…an important update for The Wolf Among Us 2.
We’ve made the difficult decision to delay The Wolf Among Us 2 out of 2023.
We know, it’s frustrating to hear.
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. However, it is going to require more time. As disappointed as you are hearing this, we feel worse having to say it.
But the work continues.
We’re committed to delivering the sequel fans deserve and doing what’s right for the game while protecting the health of our team.
We appreciate your patience and understanding.
—The Telltale Team
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A Nintendo Switch trailer was also released.
According to SteamDB.
An announcement trailer was also released.