One of the standout new games from 2024 was Frostpunk 2, 11 bit studios' long-awaited sequel to its beloved 2018 post-apocalyptic city builder. Six long years after the original's release, the second entry finally launched on Windows PC in September last year to critical acclaim — and now, it's been confirmed that a follow-up title is on the way. And it's coming sooner than you might expect.
That news came in a new press release on 11 bits' website in which the studio — with commentary from its President of the Management Board of the Company Przemysław Marszał — discussed recent successes and failures of its business, while also announcing two new upcoming games. One of those is another entry in the Frostpunk series that's slated for 2027, while the other is a "larger-scale title" planned for 2029.
"As a developer and publisher, we intend to diversify both the scale of our projects and their development timelines. This also means capitalizing on near-term, financially attractive opportunities," Marszał said. "This underlies our decision to initiate production on the next project set in the Frostpunk universe, which we plan to launch as early as 2027. In parallel, we have commenced development on a larger-scale title, targeted for release in 2029."
Additionally, Marszał also noted that there's still more to come for Frostpunk 2 itself, with 11 bit only having "barely begun" to monetize the game. New DLC releases that feature brand new gameplay systems are on the way, and the developer is also planning to launch the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 versions of the survival city builder later in 2025.
"We have barely begun monetizing this title. We hope that upcoming DLCs, including new gameplay features, will improve the ratings Frostpunk 2 has received from players," commented Marszał.
On the whole, 11 bit studios finished 2024 with a small profit margin. The company "hoped for significantly more," but ultimately had to contend with lower-than-expected earnings from games like The Thamaturge and Creatures of Ava and the difficult decision to cut an upcoming game codenamed "Project 8."
With the studio's 2025 action-adventure sci-fi game The Alters coming in June, Digital Sun's highly anticipated RPG sequel Moonlighter 2 expected in summer, and The Outer Zone's ambitious card game Death Howl — described as a "Soulslike Deckbuilder" — scheduled to release at some point later this year, though, 11 bit is confident that its budget will grow throughout 2025.
A Frostpunk 2 follow-up earlier than I expected
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Considering it took six years for 11 bit studios to develop and release a sequel to the original Frostpunk, I was not expecting the company to plan launching another game in the series just three years after that. With that said, doing so makes sense when you view the decision through the context of 11 bit's current situation; Frostpunk is one of the developer's most popular properties, so another entry undoubtedly represents one of those "near-term, financially attractive opportunities."
Notably, Frostpunk 2 reviewed quite well last year, with the game's overall Metacritic score resting at a "Generally Favorable" 85/100 at the time of writing. In his review for Windows Central, my colleague Samuel Tolbert awarded it four and a half out of five stars, writing that it "pushes the boundaries on what a city-building game and a survival experience can be, telling stories of human hope and despair in tandem. With beautiful visuals and a radically increased gameplay scope over its predecessor, only a handful of issues mar the ice."
At MSRP, Frostpunk 2 is available for $44.99, though there are a few different ways you can play it for far less. For one thing, it's available through PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, so definitely keep that in mind. Alternatively, you can pick up a permanent copy for just $22.49 at CDKeys, which is a huge 50% off discount.
