Paradox has announced that Double Eleven, longtime steward of the Prison Architect franchise and developer on Prison Architect 2, is parting ways with the simulation series.
In a post on its official website, Paradox says that the contract between it and Double Eleven "was fulfilled" with Prison Architect 2's passing of certification across all platforms.
Following that milestone, however, the two companies "could not find a commercial agreement that worked" for them both, and so a mutual agreement was made for Paradox and Double Eleven to split, seemingly amicably.
Development on Prison Architect 2 will continue under Brazilian co-development studio Kokku, "the largest Brazilian co-development company", according to its website.
Kokku has worked on games like Horizon Forbidden West, the Sniper: Ghost Warrior franchise, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, among others. It counts Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, and Paradox itself among its clients.
Paradox says that it spoke to multiple studios in the wake of Double Eleven's departure from Prison Architect, but that Kokku was "found to be the best fit" due to its experience and appreciation of Prison Architect.
Over the course of the next few months, Paradox and Kokku will be releasing development diaries and deep dives discussing Prison Architect 2 and the developer's role in bringing the game to life.
Double Eleven game director Gaz Wright took to Reddit to share a heartfelt letter regarding the studio's decision to leave Prison Architect and what's next for the franchise under Kokku.
It doesn't go into detail about Double Eleven's reasoning, but it does include some fun speculation about where the game could be going, as well as what Double Eleven has achieved with Prison Architect over the last few years. You can read the letter here.
Prison Architect 2 was originally announced back in January this year. At first, it was slated for a March release, but it was subsequently pushed back to May and then to September.
Despite the change in developer, no fresh delay has been announced, so it looks like we're still on track for the September launch. When it does hit, Prison Architect 2 will arrive on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. Watch this space for more info.
