Sons of the Forest Will Now Launch in Early Access to Avoid More Delays

Sons of the Forest developer Endnight Games has announced it will be changing the game's February 23 release date to an early access release date to prevent further delays and to allow fans to jump in and help the studio reach the finish line.

Endnight Games revealed its plan for the Sons of the Forest's release and development going forward via a post on Steam, and shared it very much wants the community's help as it did for the original game.

"It’s been a long journey since we first started ‘Sons of The Forest’ development and it’s grown into the biggest most complex game we have ever made," the post reads. "There is still so much more we want to add; items, new mechanics, gameplay balance and more. We didn’t want to delay again so have instead decided to involve the community in the continued development of this project and keep our February 23rd release date but instead release in Early Access.

"‘The Forest’ turned out to be a massive success, due mostly to the awesome community and the suggestions, feedback, and bug reports the players shared with us," the post continues. "We are really excited and hope that players want to come on this new journey with us to make this the ultimate survival horror simulator."

After its initial announcement in 2019, Sons of the Forest, which is a follow-up to 2014's The Forest, was delayed twice in 2022 to accommodate for the game's large scope.

We previewed Sons of the Forest in January 2023 and praised its vast improvements to its predecessor's gameplay, which include sophisticated AI enemies and an impressively responsive ecosystem.

"Sons of the Forest appears to evolve and build on every aspect of its predecessor with a focused goal of realism and developing a flexible ecosystem, and it feels like the building blocks are there to create something truly special," IGN's Dale Driver wrote. "But its killer feature is the addition of impressively sophisticated and smarter AI enemies and companions that could not only provide a huge leap forward for the series, but the survival game genre as a whole."

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they've contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.