Game Publisher tinyBuild has announced that Hello Neighbor 2 will be launching in 2021, with an acquisition of the title from Dynamic Pixels and a plan to invest over $15 million in the franchise. As with many of the recent announcements made relating to Microsoft games, the sequel will feature Smart Delivery, meaning that purchasing the game on Xbox One will allow users to play on the Xbox Series X as well.

The announcement trailer hits all the familiar beats seen in the first game, though it seems that our neighbor has embraced theatricality in wearing a strange bird mask. In the first game, players needed to sneak inside of the neighbor’s home, utilize a series of distractions to explore the inside without getting caught, discover the secrets of the dungeon, and make it out in one piece.

The character in the reveal trailer appears to be the same person as seen in Hello Guest, which was part of an ARG hosted by the publisher in late 2019. There, players worked at an old amusement park and worked to scare vandals away, while the man in the bird costume would attempt to sneak up on players from behind to catch them, but would run away when looked at directly.

This is clearly not the case in the trailer for Hello Neighbor 2, in which the man in the bird costume is clearly trying to catch the player. In the end, he removes the mask to reveal a familiar face from the first game. Given that tinyBuild put so much effort into creating a shroud of mystery around the ARG project, there will no doubt be clues scattered throughout the sequel.

The first game in the series was a resounding success, with a Very Positive rating on steam and over 40 million players. While the premise may sound simple, the time to complete Hello Neighbor took on average around 10 hours, though it differs depending on which platform one uses.

While the announcement of a sequel is great news, what is even more exciting is that it appears that tinyBuild is interested in the long-term development of the series to future games of the same style rather than only in a single sequel.

We cannot wait to see what lies ahead in Hello Neighbor 2 and are excited about the long-term development of the franchise!

Source: Xbox Games Showcase July, hello-neighbor.fandom.com

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