Frogwares Bets on a $49.99 Price for The Sinking City 2

Frogwares opened pre-orders for The Sinking City 2 on July 10, pricing the standard edition at $49.99, about ten dollars under what most survival horror games now charge at launch. The Ukrainian studio’s Lovecraftian sequel launches August 18 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, with European and UK buyers paying €49.99 and £41.35.

Frogwares is making three bets at once with this launch: a price under the AAA standard, an engine swap two months before release, and a genre pivot away from the detective work that built the original game’s fanbase.

A $49.99 Price Tag Undercuts the AAA Standard

Frogwares announced the pre-order window from its Kyiv office on July 10, alongside a new gameplay trailer built around the bonus content packed into each edition. The Steam listing for The Sinking City 2 confirms the game launches the same day across Steam, GOG, the Epic Games Store, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Sergiy Oganesyan, Frogwares’ publishing director, called the moment one the studio wasn’t sure it would reach.

Seeing pre-orders go live is quite a surreal milestone for us.

Oganesyan said the milestone means the project is essentially finished, something the studio wasn’t always certain it would get to say. He described The Sinking City 2 as Frogwares’ most ambitious game yet, built “under circumstances most studios never have to plan for by a team working remotely across Ukraine and beyond,” according to the official pre-order announcement.

He tied the price to that same reasoning. Most survival horror games now launch at $60 or more, Oganesyan said, and Frogwares priced its standard edition at $49.99 because the studio wants “to be fair and give as many people as possible the chance to step into Arkham.” That is a $10 gap from the going rate, and Frogwares is betting it wins over players a full-price launch would turn away.

What’s Included in Each Pre-Order Edition?

The Sinking City 2 ships in three tiers: Standard at $49.99, Deluxe at $54.99, and Premium at $59.99. Every tier includes the Chthonic Arsenal weapon pack as a pre-order bonus, while the higher tiers stack extra outfits, resources, and a bonus mission that carries a unique weapon back into the main campaign.

• Standard Edition, $49.99 – the base game plus the Chthonic Arsenal weapon pack.
• Deluxe Edition, $54.99 – adds the Arkham Field Kit: three character outfits, three Dream Essence items for early skill access, and a starter resource pack.
• Premium Edition, $59.99 – adds a bonus manor mission and 24 hours of advance access before the August 18 launch.

Frogwares can set those numbers on its own terms because it now publishes its own games, a right it spent years fighting to reclaim.

Frogwares Built This Sequel Through War and a Courtroom Fight

The original Sinking City launched in 2019 under publisher Nacon. Frogwares accused Nacon of withholding payments and pulled the game from sale in 2020 to stop further sales reaching its former partner. The dispute dragged through French courts until the two sides ended their publishing agreement on December 31, 2023, clearing Frogwares to control the franchise outright.

The Kyiv-based studio, founded in 2000, kept working through Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while rebuilding the franchise on its own. It opened a Kickstarter campaign in March 2025 to help fund the sequel’s added scope, a month after opening registration for closed playtests.

Key dates along the way:

1. December 31, 2023: Frogwares and Nacon officially end their publishing agreement, resolving the legal dispute.
2. March 6, 2024: The Sinking City 2 is revealed at Microsoft’s Xbox Partner Preview.
3. February 2025: Frogwares opens registration for closed playtests.
4. March 6, 2025: A Kickstarter campaign launches to help fund the game’s development.
5. June 6, 2026: The August 18 release date and a playable Steam demo are revealed at the Future Games Show Summer Showcase.
6. July 10, 2026: Pre-orders open alongside pricing, PC specs, and confirmation of the Unreal Engine 5.8 migration.
7. August 18, 2026: Scheduled launch on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

Seven years separate Frogwares’ first Sinking City release from this sequel, most of it spent rebuilding the franchise and the studio’s ability to publish it. That is also long enough for a fan base’s expectations to harden.

Longtime Fans Are Split Over the Genre Overhaul

The original Sinking City paired detective work and Lovecraftian atmosphere with combat that players and reviewers criticized for years. The sequel keeps investigation as an optional layer and puts survival horror combat, tight inventory, and resource scavenging at the center instead.

The pivot reads as Frogwares fixing what its own fans complained about for years. Not every player agrees. One commenter on the game’s official Steam forum dismissed the sequel as “a stupid Resident Evil clone with a Lovecraftian skin,” arguing the studio had stripped out what made the original distinct.

Professional previews landed closer to mixed than negative. PC Gamer wrote that the game shifts the series to survival horror, and manages to be genuinely unsettling. IGN’s hands-on impressions were more cautious, describing a game chasing the untapped potential left to float in the void in the first game, though the outlet stopped short of calling it a finished success.

Shacknews landed in between, calling an early build a promising balancing act of action, investigation, and suspense after a hands-on session in May.

Why Did Frogwares Swap Engines Two Months Before Launch?

Frogwares moved The Sinking City 2’s entire codebase to Unreal Engine 5.8 roughly two months before its August 18 launch, judging the performance gains worth the risk of a late migration. The studio published new minimum and recommended PC specifications alongside the pre-order news, and players testing the current demo have already reported crashes tied to the older build.

Some of that risk is already visible. Players on the game’s Steam discussion board have reported Unreal Engine crashes immediately after launching the demo or picking a difficulty setting. Frogwares’ own demo notes acknowledge the build is unfinished and that performance issues are still being worked on ahead of the final release.

Frogwares has about five weeks left to close that gap. The game launches August 18, and by then the studio’s price bet, its genre bet, and its engine bet all land on the same day.

Frequently Asked Questions

When Does The Sinking City 2 Release, And Where?

The Sinking City 2 launches August 18, 2026, on PC through Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store, plus PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Frogwares hasn’t announced a Nintendo Switch version, even though the studio’s other work, including its Sherlock Holmes series, has supported that platform before.

Is There a Demo Available Before Launch?

Yes. Frogwares shadow-dropped a one-hour playable demo covering the game’s opening act during the Future Games Show Summer Showcase, then ran it again as part of Steam Next Fest from June 15 to June 22, 2026. The demo is still available on Steam ahead of the full release.

What Weapons Come in the Chthonic Arsenal Pack?

Every edition’s pre-order bonus includes the Chthonic Arsenal, a set of three period-styled weapons: the Shale Mary pistol, the Breakwater shotgun, and the Tektite Tommy submachine gun.

Does The Sinking City 2 Continue the First Game’s Story?

Not directly. Frogwares built the sequel around a new protagonist, occult adventurer Calvin Rafferty, and a story that stands apart from the original detective’s case. The Arkham setting and Lovecraftian tone carry over, but players don’t need to have finished the 2019 original to follow this one.

Who Develops and Publishes The Sinking City 2?

Frogwares does both. Founded in 2000 and based in Ukraine and Ireland, the studio also made the Sherlock Holmes adventure series before returning to Lovecraft with the original Sinking City in 2019. It has self-published its games since settling its dispute with former partner Nacon.

What Do You Get for Finishing the Holloway Manor Mission?

Premium Edition owners who complete the Holloway Manor side mission unlock the Bucking Bronco revolver for use in the main campaign, on top of whatever the manor’s occult backstory reveals along the way.