Until Dawn 2 Swaps Snow for Sun: Horror Sequel Launches on PS5 This January
Until Dawn 2 will launch for PlayStation 5 on 28 January, Sony confirmed during its State of Play showcase on 3 September. The date is a meaningful pull-forward: when Sony first announced the game on the PlayStation Blog on 2 June 2026, the stated window was 2027. The new date lands it in early 2027's first weeks instead.
The original Until Dawn, a teen-horror game where player choices determine who survives the night, was remade for PS5 and PC in October 2024. Until Dawn 2 moves the formula from that game's snowbound alpine resort to Akishima Island — an abandoned tropical paradise described by developer Firesprite as a place where things have gone very wrong. Firesprite, a Sony-owned studio based in Liverpool, is handling development. Creative director Stu Tilley detailed the project on the PlayStation Blog.
AdHoc Studio, the team behind the narrative game Dispatch, is contributing to Until Dawn 2's story in a creative capacity. Peter Stormare also returns as Dr. Hill, the unsettling therapist figure who addressed players directly in the 2015 original.
Pre-orders open on 10 September and come with Dr. Hill-themed bonuses: a classic Until Dawn outfit, an Akishima Island holiday outfit, and collectable Dr. Hill bobbleheads. A Deluxe Digital Edition adds a "Y2K Neon Vibes Pack" with new outfits for the core cast, plus a feature called the "Diorama of Death."
For fans of the series, the tropical setting is the headline shift. Until Dawn built its tension on isolation in freezing darkness — a lodge on a mountain where no help was coming. Akishima Island flips that palette to sun, vegetation and ruins, though Firesprite has not yet detailed how the new environment changes the gameplay or branching-narrative structure that defined the original.
What is clear is the timeline. Sony first showed Until Dawn 2 at its June 2026 State of Play broadcast with a broad 2027 target. Four months later, the publisher has narrowed that to a specific January date, a development cycle that puts the game in players' hands at the start of the year rather than deep inside it.
