Outlast 2 delayed until 2017, still promises to "scare the crap out of you"

Bad news for fans of crotch-stabbing and walking across pits of charred babies: The frightful horror-fest Outlast 2 has been pushed back into the first quarter of 2017. Developer Red Barrels announced the delay in a message posted on the Outlast Facebook page, in which it said it didn't want to release the game until it's been “tested to the extreme.”

“We had to make a difficult decision recently. After weighing our options we’ve decided to postpone Outlast 2’s release until Q1 of 2017,” the studio wrote. “We want you to know that we listen to your feedback, we see your excitement and we know you care about our work. Our mission as an indie studio is to deliver to you the best, most terrifying, most fulfilling experiences possible. That’s why we’re taking just a little bit more time to make sure our vision for Outlast 2 is in no way compromised and is the experience you deserve.”

Further to the “experience you deserve,” Red Barrels added, “We promise Outlast 2 will scare the crap out of you.”

Outlast 2 is not a direct sequel to the original game, but rather a spiritual successor that puts players in the shoes of a cameraman searching for his wife, a journalist who went missing following a nighttime helicopter crash in the Arizona desert. Like the first game, using the camera's night vision mode to discover things that are probably best left hiding in the dark will be a core part of the horror experience. A hard release date hadn't been set prior to today's announcement, but it had been expected to be ready for release this autumn—although Tim said in his preview, presciently as it turns out, that he thought it “could potentially slip until winter.”

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.