Prison Architect 2 developers part ways with Paradox months before it's due for release

Prison Architect 2 was delayed last month from a planned May release date until September. Now it's changing developer. Double Eleven are parting ways with publisher Paradox Interactive after nine years working on the series, and a new studio, Kokku, are taking over.

"Double Eleven has been with us since the console port, led the development of the game on all platforms, and has been working on Prison Architect 2 over the last few years. With the sequel passing certification on all platforms, the contract was fulfilled. However, we could not find a commercial agreement that worked for both parties moving forward and mutually agreed to part ways," says the announcement of the change.

Kokku are a Brazilian co-development studio who have worked on projects such as Horizon: Forbidden West, as well as creating a handful of licensed Roblox games. They've been contributing to the development of Prison Architect 2 since last autumn and are now leading the efforts to fix the technical issues identified as the reasons for the delay last month.

Gaz Wright, game director at Double Eleven, posted his own goodbye to Prison Architect, saying that the studio were "excited about our next new projects, [and] expanding our catalogue of titles and portfolio of clients."

Prison Architect was originally created by Introversion Software, before the IP rights were sold to Paradox Interactive back in 2019. The publisher's stewardship of the game since then has not been without criticism, as Double Eleven were tasked with producing several DLC that were widely criticised for introducing imbalances and technical instability.

The sequel switches the series from 2D to 3D, enabling multi-storey prisons for the first time, while including a selection of features from the first game alongside planned robust modding tools. I hope it's good.