Prince of Persia roguelite devs admit release delay was to dodge Hades 2

After Hades 2 shadow dropped in early access on May 6, The Rogue Prince of Persia developer, Evil Empire, admitted it’s “not prideful enough” to be able to compete with such a title, which is why its delayed PoP until the end of May.

Although the delayed release of Rogue PoP isn’t the best news, fans empathize and praise Evil Empire for its “wise and understandable decision” about delaying the release date, even though the dev is confident in its upcoming roguelite.

According to the official delay post from the dev on X (formerly Twitter) on May 10, it knows the delay is “annoying news to hear,” but it was the best decision for Rogue PoP. As Games Hub reported on May 12, choosing between two games launching so close together in these trying times can be challenging. 

Even the Evil Empire devs are enjoying Hades 2, so they understand the pull and know players want to have fun with this mythological title without feeling the need to make a tough choice. The developers did that for Rogue PoP and us. The delay means the devs can focus on a few lingering bugs and test the massive day-one patch to ensure it runs smoothly. 

With Hades 2 having just under 100,000 peak players on Steam in the past 24 hours, Evil Empire’s move to delay Rogue PoP might have been for the best. Players are backing the dev up by calling this the “smartest thing anyone’s done in the gaming industry this week” because, as other players admitted, Hades 2 is just “going to overshadow a lot right now.” It certainly has.

This isn’t the first time a dev has postponed a title’s launch due to another’s release. More recently, Naoki “Yoshi-P” Yoshida, a Final Fantasy producer, delayed the launch of Final Fantasy 14’s Dawntrail expansion because it would clash with Shadow of the Erdtree, the upcoming Elden Ring DLC. 

So, while it’s not uncommon for games to be delayed because it would clash with the release of others, it’s almost unheard of for a debit to admit it’s delayed the game because it knew the implications of this clash and wanted to avoid it.

Unfortunately, we don’t know when Rogue PoP will officially be released, as the post does mention the end of May. But the official release date will be revealed on Monday, May 13.