After four-and-a-half years in development and a year-and-a-half in early access, Supergiant’s roguelike sequel Hades 2 has finally gone 1.0. Hades was arguably the best roguelike game out there, but our Hades 2 review is not alone in suggesting the follow-up might be even better than its predecessor. But now that launch is here, there’s still one question: What’s next for Supergiant Games?
A partial answer comes for early access players booting up the 1.0 version today, who will be greeted with this message before the main menu: “The conclusion of Early Access also means we expect to wind down on updates to Hades II once we ensure our launch is as problem-free as possible. Then, we’ll return to shadows for a while and plan our next move.”
For now, Supergiant is prepping to “deploy hotfixes or patches in case of any issues,” as the devs say in a Steam news post. “Beyond that, it’s too early to say what’s next for our team! We’ll likely take some time to reflect and recharge.”
Hades proved to be Supergiant’s breakout hit, but the studio has a long line of beloved indies going back to the 2011 action-RPG Bastion. They followed up with Transistor in 2014, which blended real-time combat with turn-based strategy and a wild upgrade system. Then came Pyre in 2017, which itself blended sports games, a fantasy setting, and choice-driven visual novel-style storytelling.
Just about the only common threads tying Supergiant’s games together are gorgeous visuals and impeccable soundtracks, but those aren’t bad trademarks to hang your hat on. Personally, I’m hoping that whatever the studio does next, it’s just as much of a left-field surprise as something like Transistor or Pyre. Regardless of what that next game looks like, there’s a whole lot of Hades 2 to tide fans over in the meantime.