The year ahead is looking like a promising one for the survival genre, and that’s great news for fans because 2022 was a bit disappointing when it came to new survival games. There were a few gems scattered throughout the year, particularly in Early Access, like vampire survival game V Rising (opens in new tab), colony-builder Stranded: Alien Dawn (opens in new tab), and survival city builder Farthest Frontier (opens in new tab). And Dwarf Fortress (opens in new tab)‘s Steam release, at long last, closed out the year.

For the most part, however, 2022 felt lighter than recent years for new survival games, mostly due to delays, as several big games missed their release dates and slid into 2023.

But put the past behind you and look ahead to the future. It’s the new year and we’re sharpening our axes for the months ahead. Here are 12 survival games to look forward to in 2023.

Frostpunk 2

11 bit studios hasn’t exactly confirmed that Frostpunk 2 will be out in 2023, though it did say that a leaked date of 2024 was “false.” In other words, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that “coming soon” doesn’t mean we’ll have to wait all the way until 2025 for the follow-up to such an influential game. The post-apocalyptic survival city builder and society simulator sequel continues the struggle to stay warm on a frozen planet, this time advancing from the era of coal burning and into the age of oil. Naturally, the biggest threat to survival is still just what you’d expect: humanity itself.

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl

It’s been a long, long road for Stalker 2, which will actually be the fourth Stalker game. Originally planned for 2012, the open world survival FPS was later canceled, but re-announced in 2018 when developer GSC Game World reformed. The most recent delay was completely understandable: the devs were located in Kyiv and had to relocate to Prague due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We’re still hopeful Stalker 2 meets its late-2023 release date.

Ark 2 

Who’s ready for some dinos and Diesel? The sequel to Early Access survival game hit Ark: Survival Evolved is due this year, alongside an animated series, both of which will feature Fast and Furious star Vin Diesel. We don’t know a whole heck of a lot about Ark 2 yet, but the trailer shows what you’d expect from Studio Wildcard: lots of dinosaurs and humans riding around on them.

Sons of the Forest

Fans of gruesome horror survival game The Forest hopefully won’t have too much longer to wait for its sequel. Sons of the Forest was originally due in May of 2022, then was bumped to October, and is now planned for February 2023. This time you’re searching a remote island for a missing billionaire, but we expect things to quickly go wrong, forcing you to carve out a life there, building and crafting and fending off bloodthirsty cannibals.

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria

The first survival game set in Tolkien’s world (opens in new tab) will take you deep into the ruins of Khazad-dûm, the former dwarven kingdom, in the Fourth Age of Middle-earth. Play either solo or co-op as you mine for minerals like mithril, build a base, battle orcs and goblins (and probably much worse) and craft weapons and machinery deep beneath the mountains.

Palworld

We’ve been calling it “Pokémon with guns” because, honestly, that’s exactly what it looks like. A bright fantasy world with cute and cuddly creatures to collect, but also heavy machine guns and forced labor camps. Palworld is bizarre, but we can’t say we’re not interested in playing it. Farm food, survive harsh weather, and collect an army of critters to battle alongside you. (If any of them die, you can always eat them.)

The Day Before

This one’s a bit of a wildcard. On the strength of a couple of long trailers with some heavy DayZ and The Division vibes, The Day Before rocketed to the top of Steam’s most-wishlisted games, but we haven’t heard much of it since. It’s ambitious: a big open world with both rural and metropolitan areas, zombies, vehicles, PvP, looting, and survival. That’s a lot of moving parts to manage, and while we’re hopeful it’ll deliver we’re not exactly confident it’ll be quite as good as it looks.

Nightingale

Like many of 2022’s games, Nightingale’s Early Access release slid into 2023. The survival and crafting game set in the Victorian Era sees you stranded in a bizarre realm filled with monsters and magic where you can build an estate and craft weapons and gear. Portals to other realms containing precious resources can be opened, and interestingly combat isn’t the only way to deal with enemies: you might be able to negotiate truces with certain factions, like giants, to avoid solving every problem with a shotgun blast.

Also notable in 2023:

Wanderlost: A cute and cartoony survival game where you hunt, craft, and battle zombies.

State of Decay 3 (opens in new tab): Announced in 2020, recent news of State of Decay 3 has been pretty sparse, but we’re still hoping for a 2023 release.

Ascent of Ashes: RimWorld modders are making their own standalone survival game with a focus on real time tactics combat.

Wizard with a Gun: Craft enchanted ammo and unload on your enemies in this base-building survival sandbox.

The year ahead is looking like a promising one for the survival genre, and that’s great news for fans because 2022 was a bit disappointing when it came to new survival games. There were a few gems scattered throughout the year, particularly in Early Access, like vampire survival game V Rising (opens in new tab), colony-builder Stranded: Alien Dawn (opens in new tab), and survival city builder Farthest Frontier (opens in new tab). And Dwarf Fortress (opens in new tab)‘s Steam release, at long last, closed out the year.

For the most part, however, 2022 felt lighter than recent years for new survival games, mostly due to delays, as several big games missed their release dates and slid into 2023.

But put the past behind you and look ahead to the future. It’s the new year and we’re sharpening our axes for the months ahead. Here are 12 survival games to look forward to in 2023.

Frostpunk 2

11 bit studios hasn’t exactly confirmed that Frostpunk 2 will be out in 2023, though it did say that a leaked date of 2024 was “false.” In other words, we’re keeping our fingers crossed that “coming soon” doesn’t mean we’ll have to wait all the way until 2025 for the follow-up to such an influential game. The post-apocalyptic survival city builder and society simulator sequel continues the struggle to stay warm on a frozen planet, this time advancing from the era of coal burning and into the age of oil. Naturally, the biggest threat to survival is still just what you’d expect: humanity itself.

Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl

It’s been a long, long road for Stalker 2, which will actually be the fourth Stalker game. Originally planned for 2012, the open world survival FPS was later canceled, but re-announced in 2018 when developer GSC Game World reformed. The most recent delay was completely understandable: the devs were located in Kyiv and had to relocate to Prague due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. We’re still hopeful Stalker 2 meets its late-2023 release date.

Ark 2 

Who’s ready for some dinos and Diesel? The sequel to Early Access survival game hit Ark: Survival Evolved is due this year, alongside an animated series, both of which will feature Fast and Furious star Vin Diesel. We don’t know a whole heck of a lot about Ark 2 yet, but the trailer shows what you’d expect from Studio Wildcard: lots of dinosaurs and humans riding around on them.

Sons of the Forest

Fans of gruesome horror survival game The Forest hopefully won’t have too much longer to wait for its sequel. Sons of the Forest was originally due in May of 2022, then was bumped to October, and is now planned for February 2023. This time you’re searching a remote island for a missing billionaire, but we expect things to quickly go wrong, forcing you to carve out a life there, building and crafting and fending off bloodthirsty cannibals.

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria

The first survival game set in Tolkien’s world (opens in new tab) will take you deep into the ruins of Khazad-dûm, the former dwarven kingdom, in the Fourth Age of Middle-earth. Play either solo or co-op as you mine for minerals like mithril, build a base, battle orcs and goblins (and probably much worse) and craft weapons and machinery deep beneath the mountains.

Palworld

We’ve been calling it “Pokémon with guns” because, honestly, that’s exactly what it looks like. A bright fantasy world with cute and cuddly creatures to collect, but also heavy machine guns and forced labor camps. Palworld is bizarre, but we can’t say we’re not interested in playing it. Farm food, survive harsh weather, and collect an army of critters to battle alongside you. (If any of them die, you can always eat them.)

The Day Before

This one’s a bit of a wildcard. On the strength of a couple of long trailers with some heavy DayZ and The Division vibes, The Day Before rocketed to the top of Steam’s most-wishlisted games, but we haven’t heard much of it since. It’s ambitious: a big open world with both rural and metropolitan areas, zombies, vehicles, PvP, looting, and survival. That’s a lot of moving parts to manage, and while we’re hopeful it’ll deliver we’re not exactly confident it’ll be quite as good as it looks.

Nightingale

Like many of 2022’s games, Nightingale’s Early Access release slid into 2023. The survival and crafting game set in the Victorian Era sees you stranded in a bizarre realm filled with monsters and magic where you can build an estate and craft weapons and gear. Portals to other realms containing precious resources can be opened, and interestingly combat isn’t the only way to deal with enemies: you might be able to negotiate truces with certain factions, like giants, to avoid solving every problem with a shotgun blast.

Also notable in 2023:

Wanderlost: A cute and cartoony survival game where you hunt, craft, and battle zombies.

State of Decay 3 (opens in new tab): Announced in 2020, recent news of State of Decay 3 has been pretty sparse, but we’re still hoping for a 2023 release.

Ascent of Ashes: RimWorld modders are making their own standalone survival game with a focus on real time tactics combat.

Wizard with a Gun: Craft enchanted ammo and unload on your enemies in this base-building survival sandbox.

The official voting period ran from December 2 to December 31, but the CWA said union organizing efforts have been underway at ZeniMax for “months,” and that some employees began signing union authorization cards in November.

“We’re thrilled to kick off 2023 in a workplace that’s stronger and more equitable than it was last year,” senior QA tester Skylar Hinnant said. “This is an empowering victory that allows us to protect ourselves and each other in a way we never could without a union. Our hope and belief is that this is the year in which game workers across the country exercise their power and reshape the industry as a whole.”

“It’s difficult to express in words just how much winning our union matters to us,” senior QA tester Dylan Burton said. “We’ve been working so hard to get here that it would be impossible not to be excited. We know this is not the end of our hard work, but reaching this milestone gives us faith that when workers stand together, we can accomplish anything we set our minds to.”

In contrast to Activision Blizzard, which has fought unions (opens in new tab) tooth and nail, Microsoft—which may soon become Activision’s parent company—committed to neutrality in the ZeniMax union vote when it was first announced (opens in new tab). Shortly after the vote was tallied, Microsoft extended official recognition of the new union.

“In light of the results of the recent unionization vote, we recognize the Communications Workers of America (CWA) as the bargaining representative for the Quality Assurance employees at ZeniMax,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement emailed to PC Gamer. “We look forward to engaging in good faith negotiations as we work towards a collective bargaining agreement.”

CWA president Chris Shelton was critical of other game studios and tech company that choose to “attack, undermine, and demoralize” employees to try to form unions, but paid tribute to Microsoft for “charting a different course which will strengthen its corporate culture and ability to serve its customers.” Microsoft’s approach to unionization “should serve as a model for the industry and as a blueprint for regulators,” Shelton added, which will no doubt make a nice sound bite for Microsoft as it continues to pursue regulatory approval (opens in new tab) of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. 

Activision-Blizzard has been at the center of game industry unionization efforts, but the formation of ZeniMax Workers United is a big deal in its own right: The company’s subsidiaries include Arkane Studios, Bethesda Softworks, id Software, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, and ZeniMax Online Studios. The CWA said the new union “includes all QA employees in the US across ZeniMax’s various studios.”

Another Activision Blizzard studio also recently announced its plan to unionize: Proletariat (opens in new tab), which Activision acquired in June 2022, announced last week that its employees are forming up as the Proletariat Workers Alliance. Unlike the ZeniMax union and others at Activision Blizzard, which encompass only QA workers, the Proletarian union will cover the entire studio.

The official voting period ran from December 2 to December 31, but the CWA said union organizing efforts have been underway at ZeniMax for “months,” and that some employees began signing union authorization cards in November.

“We’re thrilled to kick off 2023 in a workplace that’s stronger and more equitable than it was last year,” senior QA tester Skylar Hinnant said. “This is an empowering victory that allows us to protect ourselves and each other in a way we never could without a union. Our hope and belief is that this is the year in which game workers across the country exercise their power and reshape the industry as a whole.”

“It’s difficult to express in words just how much winning our union matters to us,” senior QA tester Dylan Burton said. “We’ve been working so hard to get here that it would be impossible not to be excited. We know this is not the end of our hard work, but reaching this milestone gives us faith that when workers stand together, we can accomplish anything we set our minds to.”

In contrast to Activision Blizzard, which has fought unions (opens in new tab) tooth and nail, Microsoft—which may soon become Activision’s parent company—committed to neutrality in the ZeniMax union vote when it was first announced (opens in new tab). Shortly after the vote was tallied, Microsoft extended official recognition of the new union.

“In light of the results of the recent unionization vote, we recognize the Communications Workers of America (CWA) as the bargaining representative for the Quality Assurance employees at ZeniMax,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement emailed to PC Gamer. “We look forward to engaging in good faith negotiations as we work towards a collective bargaining agreement.”

CWA president Chris Shelton was critical of other game studios and tech company that choose to “attack, undermine, and demoralize” employees to try to form unions, but paid tribute to Microsoft for “charting a different course which will strengthen its corporate culture and ability to serve its customers.” Microsoft’s approach to unionization “should serve as a model for the industry and as a blueprint for regulators,” Shelton added, which will no doubt make a nice sound bite for Microsoft as it continues to pursue regulatory approval (opens in new tab) of its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. 

Activision-Blizzard has been at the center of game industry unionization efforts, but the formation of ZeniMax Workers United is a big deal in its own right: The company’s subsidiaries include Arkane Studios, Bethesda Softworks, id Software, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, and ZeniMax Online Studios. The CWA said the new union “includes all QA employees in the US across ZeniMax’s various studios.”

Another Activision Blizzard studio also recently announced its plan to unionize: Proletariat (opens in new tab), which Activision acquired in June 2022, announced last week that its employees are forming up as the Proletariat Workers Alliance. Unlike the ZeniMax union and others at Activision Blizzard, which encompass only QA workers, the Proletarian union will cover the entire studio.

Like many free-to-play games, Destiny 2’s base game is free, but there’s a ton of additional content like expansions, season passes, and cosmetics that you can throw money at if you like. Last week, however, the D2 Datamines Discord (via The Game Post (opens in new tab)) revealed the discovery of files indicating that Bungie had plans (that seemed to have been subsequently scrapped) to incorporate multiple types of premium subscription tiers in Destiny 2.

There was no information on pricing or content, but it was expected that the subscription would be somehow tied into the launch of the big Lightfall expansion, which is coming on February 28.

The reaction to the report seemed split: Not everyone was thrilled with the prospect of a subscription option in a game that’s already deeply monetized, but some players saw it as a good idea, particularly for newcomers.

“I would think a new player would find the prospect of buying The Forsaken Pack ($19.99), Shadowkeep ($29.99), Beyond Light ($39.99), The Witch Queen ($39.99), and Lightfall ($49.99) plus two dungeon passes ($20 each) for a grand total of about $220 just to have access to ‘all the content’ a little daunting,” redditor Ross2552 (opens in new tab) wrote. “Meanwhile here’s a subscription you can sign up for that gives you access to all the content while it’s active. It’d probably be popular and a lot easier for newer players to jump in.”

“I hope it’s a success,” FlyingWhale44 (opens in new tab) wrote. “I know it would make it a lot easier for me to get my friends into this game if they could get a sub for a couple months and check it out instead of me saying ‘Oh that? You need to buy X for that’.”

It doesn’t matter either way, because none of it was true. The whole thing was a joke—a troll—a lie. Elliott of the D2 Dataminers Discord (opens in new tab) copped to making it all up in a now-deleted statement captured and shared on Twitter by DestinyTracker.

“Was gonna just let this keep on going, but since it grew really large and people are actually worried outside of the server we just wanted to formally apologize and admit that we trolled everyone,” Elliott wrote. “This will probably make a lot of people angry, but it was all meant to be done non-maliciously.”

Elliott also promised that future “joke posts” will be labelled as such from now on.

That message has since been deleted, but another one, also acknowledging that the whole thing was a joke, has taken its place in the Discord’s “Datamines” channel.

“It was really immature that I allowed the made up rumor to go that far and spread outside of the discord server,” Elliott wrote. “I take full responsibility for my actions and shouldn’tve used my platform in that kind of way. No matter if it was a joke or not. I feel pretty awful and I’m sorry to anyone that is still upset over it.”

You have to be careful about making “jokes” when you’re in a position of authority or responsibility, especially when said joke is played completely straight and entirely believable. What I think is really interesting about this situation, though, is the reaction to the initial report—an awful lot of people seem to think a subscription model, properly implemented, would be a good idea for Destiny 2, which is not at all what I would’ve expected. The report may be fake, but maybe it’s time for Bungie to take the step anyway?

Like many free-to-play games, Destiny 2’s base game is free, but there’s a ton of additional content like expansions, season passes, and cosmetics that you can throw money at if you like. Last week, however, the D2 Datamines Discord (via The Game Post (opens in new tab)) revealed the discovery of files indicating that Bungie had plans (that seemed to have been subsequently scrapped) to incorporate multiple types of premium subscription tiers in Destiny 2.

There was no information on pricing or content, but it was expected that the subscription would be somehow tied into the launch of the big Lightfall expansion, which is coming on February 28.

The reaction to the report seemed split: Not everyone was thrilled with the prospect of a subscription option in a game that’s already deeply monetized, but some players saw it as a good idea, particularly for newcomers.

“I would think a new player would find the prospect of buying The Forsaken Pack ($19.99), Shadowkeep ($29.99), Beyond Light ($39.99), The Witch Queen ($39.99), and Lightfall ($49.99) plus two dungeon passes ($20 each) for a grand total of about $220 just to have access to ‘all the content’ a little daunting,” redditor Ross2552 (opens in new tab) wrote. “Meanwhile here’s a subscription you can sign up for that gives you access to all the content while it’s active. It’d probably be popular and a lot easier for newer players to jump in.”

“I hope it’s a success,” FlyingWhale44 (opens in new tab) wrote. “I know it would make it a lot easier for me to get my friends into this game if they could get a sub for a couple months and check it out instead of me saying ‘Oh that? You need to buy X for that’.”

It doesn’t matter either way, because none of it was true. The whole thing was a joke—a troll—a lie. Elliott of the D2 Dataminers Discord (opens in new tab) copped to making it all up in a now-deleted statement captured and shared on Twitter by DestinyTracker.

“Was gonna just let this keep on going, but since it grew really large and people are actually worried outside of the server we just wanted to formally apologize and admit that we trolled everyone,” Elliott wrote. “This will probably make a lot of people angry, but it was all meant to be done non-maliciously.”

Elliott also promised that future “joke posts” will be labelled as such from now on.

That message has since been deleted, but another one, also acknowledging that the whole thing was a joke, has taken its place in the Discord’s “Datamines” channel.

“It was really immature that I allowed the made up rumor to go that far and spread outside of the discord server,” Elliott wrote. “I take full responsibility for my actions and shouldn’tve used my platform in that kind of way. No matter if it was a joke or not. I feel pretty awful and I’m sorry to anyone that is still upset over it.”

You have to be careful about making “jokes” when you’re in a position of authority or responsibility, especially when said joke is played completely straight and entirely believable. What I think is really interesting about this situation, though, is the reaction to the initial report—an awful lot of people seem to think a subscription model, properly implemented, would be a good idea for Destiny 2, which is not at all what I would’ve expected. The report may be fake, but maybe it’s time for Bungie to take the step anyway?