When an update video for Dead Cells—the slick Early Access Metroidvania—popped up on Steam, I was hoping that we'd get a release date. But alas, no such luck. The Motion Twin team said they are still "far from finishing the game", which has been up on Steam since May. They also revealed that the game is getting a price bump after the Winter Sale to reflect the significant process they've made in development: it will rise from $16.99/£13.99 to $19.99 (probably around £16).
That makes the current discount, to $12.74/£10.49, even more attractive. The game is already pretty polished, and you won't find many players with a bad word to say about it—Steam reviews are overwhelmingly positive.
The price increase reflects the fact that, following the release of The Foundry Update last week, the major changes to the game's system have been made, and now the team will focus on adding more levels and content, as well as tweaking the UI. "The game now has tonnes more features, more content, less bugs, and there's less of risk taken by new players when they buy the game...as a result of this we're going to increase the price. We'll probably do that again at the end of Early Access."
The Foundry Update made a couple of major additions, namely a more customisable upgrade system that lets you re-spec your character on the fly, new custom difficulty settings and a revamped weapon upgrade system. You can read the full details of the update here , and click here for the blog post accompanying the team's end of year video, which you can watch at the top of this post.
When the game entered Early Access in May, Motion Twin said it'd be ready in eight months to a year. That window is not far off, so I'd expect to hear whispers of a release date in the new year.