The Sinking City 2 Revealed After Messy Legal Battle Finally Comes to an End - Xbox Partner Preview 2024

Yesterday, Ukrainian developer Frogwares delivered one of the best surprises of the Xbox Partner Showcase with the announcement of The Sinking City 2.

Frogwares has revealed The Sinking City 2, a sequel to the Lovecraftian detective game that’s leaning much, much further in to the horror genre. The game is coming out in 2025 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

The Sinking City 2, a sequel to the 2019 detective horror title, has been revealed at Xbox's Partner Preview event and is leaning even harder into its Lovecraftian inspiration. The Xbox Partner Preview show highlighted some of the exciting third party games set to launch on Xbox in the coming months, including Final Fantasy 14's March 21 Xbox release date, the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Legends of the Zone Trilogy, another look at Capcom's RTS mashup Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess, and much more.

After the public legal hubbub that surrounded the original The Sinking City, developer Frogwares is back to focusing on expanding the franchise – and it’s announced a sequel for PS5, which is currently slated for release in 2025. The Sinking City 2 is set in 1920s America, when a supernatural flood brings Eldritch-like horrors to the city of Arkham. This is being billed as a brand-new, standalone story, unrelated to the original.

2019’s The Sinking City was a solid entry in the growing catalogue of Lovecraft-inspired horror and adventure games, which later became better-known for the bitter legal battle over the game between developer Frogwares and publisher Nacon. Frogwares was ultimately successful in that battle, and today during the latest Xbox Partner Preview showcase, they announced The Sinking City 2 is on the way.

Frogwares has announced “story-rich Lovecraftian survival horror” sequel The Sinking City 2 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG). It will launch in 2025. A Kickstarter campaign is also planned.

Frogwares finally regained sole control of The Sinking City in January, after years of dispute, and have wasted no time in now revealing a sequel, with an upcoming Kickstarter campaign for a "safety net", coming in 2025. The new and extremely damp survival horror game, set in a heavily flooded New England city in the 1920s, is pivoting the studio to a "'horror-first' focus with gameplay primarily built around combat, exploration and its Lovecraftian setting and story". This is a step away from the studio's mainstay, the Sherlock Holmes detective games, and I am uncertain about the choice. But let's peer through the weeds a bit further.

Nearly two decades after Persona 3 was released on the PlayStation 2, Atlus decided to reward longtime fans of the beloved title with a both faithful and flashy remake. Persona 3 Reload hit shelves on February 2 and has already sold over 1 million copies, making it the company’s fastest-selling game to date. The show isn’t quite over, as three waves of downloadable content will be made available as part of the title’s Expansion Pass.

Frogwares delivered The Sinking City back in 2019, and while that game had its share of fiasco post-launch thanks to a distributor dispute, it has since returned to the storefronts. The developers have managed to become the sole publisher and could chart out the franchise’s future. Today, we’re getting word that The Sinking City 2 is in the works from Frogwares, and we should see it come out sometime in 2025. 

The second-ever Xbox Partner Preview just took place, and it gave us a deeper look at some of the third-party games coming to Xbox. It has been an odd year for the Xbox, as its first-party lineup is finally starting to take shape with titles like Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, while fans are also concerned about the future of its platform in the wake of the decision to bring some of its games to the Nintendo Switch and PS5. This showcase demonstrated that third-party studios are still in full support of Xbox and by showing off some of their games that are on the way to Xbox Game Pass.

The Sinking City may not have been a huge critical hit, but action-adventure title was nonetheless a successful one for developer Frogwares, and at the recent Xbox Partner Preview, it announced a sequel- though one that’s taking a different approach from its predecessor.

Ukrainian developer Frogwares has announced The Sinking City 2, for launch on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2025.