Developer Endnight Games has announced Sons of the Forest is switching to an early access launch.

The survival-thriller game was previously confirmed to launch on February 23 for PC (via Steam), but is now releasing in an early access state – and not the full game.

Here’s the word from Endnight on the change in development:

Hey Everyone,

It’s been a long journey since we first started ‘Sons of The Forest’ development and it’s grown into the biggest most complex game we have ever made. There is still so much more we want to add; items, new mechanics, gameplay balance and more. We didn’t want to delay again so have instead decided to involve the community in the continued development of this project and keep our February 23rd release date but instead release in Early Access.

‘The Forest’ turned out to be a massive success, due mostly to the awesome community and the suggestions, feedback, and bug reports the players shared with us. We are really excited and hope that players want to come on this new journey with us to make this the ultimate survival horror simulator.

The team at endnight

Sons of the Forest was announced way back in 2019 and has gone through multiple delays in its multiyear development cycle.