"...We could not find a commercial agreement that worked for both parties moving forward and mutually agreed to part ways."
In a post today on the Paradox forum, the publisher noted developer Double Eleven is leaving the Prison Architect series after nine years. The first numbered sequel, Prison Architect 2, will be finished and launched with the help of co-development studio Kokku, which Paradox notes has been working on since last year, and "supported" by Double Eleven.
In the juiciest bit of an otherwise matter-of-fact post, Paradox notes that Prison Architect 2 passed certification and the contract was fulfilled, but "...We could not find a commercial agreement that worked for both parties moving forward and mutually agreed to part ways."
Reading a bit into the game's delay, a number of technical issues popped up in final testing (and we can surmise that the publisher is weary after performance issues plagued Cities Skylines 2).
"While we currently have builds certified on all platforms and are ready to release, some issues regarding memory usage and minimum spec configurations experiencing more failures have emerged. Considering the legacy of Prison Architect, and you—our passionate community, we want to ship the best possible sequel to such a beloved game, without cutting corners to do so."
Whatever happened with Double Eleven, Kokku was called up to bring the game to home plate.
Kokku is a Brazilian studio that offers outsourcing and co-development support, and also sports its own central development team. High profile credits include work on Horizon Forbidden West, Call of Duty Black Ops: Cold War, Horizon Zero Dawn, and more.
The Prison Architect series started in 2015 with the core simulation/management game, and has seen multiple add-ons and ports in the intervening years. The series itself was first created by developer Introversion, who brought Double Eleven on board in 2016 to handle the first title's console ports, and just two months ago was revealed as the developer for Prison Architect 2. Prison Architect 2 is still slated for a 2024 release.
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