Prison Architect 2 release date delay sees its development sentence extended by over a month

The 3D sequel to Prison Architect has failed to impress the parole board it seems, as it’ll need to spend a little more time behind bars. After being revealed with a March 26th release date earlier this year, developers Double Eleven and publishers Paradox Interactive have announced that Prison Architect 2 will now launch in early May after being delayed by over a month.

The slammer management sim was caught in the searchlights in January, showing a meatier sequel that adds a whole new dimension to its visuals, extra floors to its jail buildings and a behaviour system to bear in mind as you manage those incarcerated in your efficiently-run correctional facility. It’ll also debut a new built-in mod editor, likely moving away from the first game’s use of Steam Workshop.

That’s all on top of the familiar micromanagement of the first game, as you swap your architect hat for a warden’s PA speaker, looking to quell riots and halt breakouts through both smart building layout and more direct management.

The delay will move Prison Architect 2’s release date from the end of March to May 7th, with Paradox planning to run some developer streams next month to show where the game is at. The push apparently comes down to wanting to polish out some last bugs and optimise its performance as much as they can.

“While we are already confident in the quality of the game, we would like to use some extra time to identify more bugs and further optimize the game for all platforms,” Paradox said in the delay announcement.

“Although sticking to the original launch date was an option, we feel that taking this additional time is necessary to ensure that we offer a smoother experience to our players from day one.”