The studio went on to release several sets of downloadable content for the game – the Crimson Court in 2017, the Color of Madness in 2018 and the Butcher’s Circus in 2020. Their funding goal of $75,000 was reached within two days, and the project ultimately received $313,000 in funding from over 10,000 backers. The original Darkest Dungeon was released in 2016 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. I have full and complete confidence in Red Hook’s ability to deliver a quality product. Why hire quality assurance testers when you can get legions of impatient nerds to provide feedback for free? I’ll stick to being a patient nerd, thank you. Though you won’t see the likes of Red Hook Studios pulling that kind of stunt, even reputable developers employing the early access model feels like unpaid labor to me.

Some of those games have even employed “supporter tiers,” microtransactions and other tactics to get money soon and release a proper product later – or in some cases, never at all.

Over the past few years, dozens of games have launched in early access only to be abandoned before their full release. I’d much rather play the game in its completed state, and the whole fad of releasing games in their beta seems scammy. I’ve purposefully avoided playing the early access demo for Darkest Dungeon II.

It’s rather poetic that the game will release a day after my birthday, because the first title is easily one of my favorite video games of the 2010s. It’ll be available in full on Windows PC and Mac on May 8 through Epic Games Store and Steam. After spending well over a year in early access on Epic Games Store, on Monday Darkest Dungeon II’s release date was announced.

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