Development History

Metro 2039 arrives after the longest gap between mainline releases in the Metro series, about eight years from Metro Exodus in 2019 to a 4 February 2027 launch. During those years, 4A Games navigated the consequences of the war in Ukraine, which fundamentally affected both how the game was made and what it chose to be about. Details on this page reflect material published up to September 2026.

4A Games: The Studio

4A Games was founded in Kyiv, Ukraine in 2005 and remains a majority-Ukrainian studio. It is now headquartered in Malta while the majority of the development team stays in Ukraine, and the studio describes itself as having over 200 team members drawn from many countries. The studio developed the Metro series from its origins, building and refining the proprietary 4A Engine that powers each installment. Deep Silver has served as the publisher for the studio's Metro releases. The project is led by creative director Andriy Shevchenko, with Jon Bloch as executive producer and Pawel Ulmer as co-creative director and lead audio designer.

The Impact of War on Development

The war in Ukraine had a direct and serious impact on the development of Metro 2039. The studio's Kyiv team experienced power outages, disruptions to daily life, and the dispersal of staff members who had to relocate or respond to the conflict. These conditions made development harder and slower than it might otherwise have been, and they contributed to the unusually long gap between Metro Exodus and Metro 2039.

More significantly, the experience of the war reshaped what the game wanted to say. 4A Games has spoken openly about how living through a conflict driven by propaganda, authoritarian aggression, and the silencing of dissent gave the team a direct personal connection to the themes they chose to explore in Metro 2039. The Novoreich, the game's fascist-styled antagonist regime, and the themes of the cost of silence and the horrors of tyranny are not abstract choices but ideas the developers have lived with.

Development Timeline

The Reveal

Metro 2039 was publicly unveiled in April 2026, revealed during an Xbox First Look broadcast on April 16. The reveal combined a cinematic trailer with an early gameplay tease and was accompanied by a set of screenshots, introducing the game's direction and the themes that shaped it. Audience interest was strong from the moment of the reveal: the game passed 1 million wishlists on Steam within two weeks, a figure 4A Games announced itself at the start of May 2026. The publisher's parent group later reported that the game reached that milestone faster than any title in its history, and that wishlists have continued to grow ahead of expectation. That reflected both the established audience of the Metro series and the anticipation built by the presentation.

In June 2026, 4A Games followed the reveal with the game's first gameplay trailer. The trailer showed extended in-game footage and narrowed the release window from a broad winter window to February 2027.

Gamescom 2026

4A Games set out its Gamescom week in advance, publishing a schedule on 21 August 2026: a global announcement on Monday 24 August, a new trailer during Opening Night Live on Tuesday 25 August, first impressions from press and creators on Wednesday 26 August, and the show floor opening to players on Thursday 27 August, with content from the floor running through to Sunday.

Each beat landed as scheduled. The Monday announcement was the Collector's Edition. The Tuesday trailer was Renegade, the game's second gameplay trailer, shown during the Opening Night Live broadcast at 8PM CEST. Hands-on impressions from press and creators followed on the Wednesday. The show floor ran from 27 to 30 August 2026, with the demo available both at Deep Silver's own booth in Hall 9.1 and at the Xbox booth in Hall 7, and open to attendees aged 18 and over. The publisher posted from the floor across all four days and again after the show closed.

For the studio the appearance was also a return. 4A Games said eight years had passed since it last exhibited at Gamescom. That figure counts from its previous appearance at the show rather than from its previous release, and is a separate measurement from the roughly eight years between Metro Exodus and this game, which happens to be a similar length.

Alongside the trailer the publisher said the game had been nominated for five Gamescom awards: Best Visuals, Most Epic, Best Xbox Game, Best PC Game and Best PlayStation Game. It described that as the most nominations of any game this year. The count and the comparison originated with the publisher's own announcement and have since been checked independently against the awards body's own nominee list. Metro 2039 won one of the five, Best Visuals, which the publisher announced on 28 August 2026 and repeated the following day. Most Epic, Best Xbox Game, Best PC Game and Best PlayStation Game went to other titles.

Writing and Collaboration

The story of Metro 2039 was co-written with Dmitry Glukhovsky, the author whose Metro novels form the literary foundation of the series. 4A Games has positioned the game as an original narrative set in the same universe rather than an adaptation of any specific book, so the collaboration keeps the tone and world consistent while leaving the studio free to tell a new story. The studio has framed Metro 2039 as the darkest chapter in the series so far, a tonal goal shaped by both the source material and the team's own experience of the war. Those themes are set out on Story and Themes.

Technology

Metro 2039 runs on the proprietary 4A Engine, the same engine family that has powered the Metro series throughout its history and that 4A Games has refined over more than a decade of development. Having been early adopters of ray tracing on Metro Exodus, the studio has rebuilt its implementation of the technology for Metro 2039, aiming for a more tuned and performant result while targeting current-generation consoles, specifically the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. PC players will also benefit from the engine's technical capabilities through the PC release on Steam, the Epic Games Store and the Microsoft Store. The engine continues to support the series' hallmark systems, including the diegetic interface, weapon maintenance, and the survival mechanics tied to the gas mask and its filters.

The publisher describes Metro 2039 as the first game in the series built from the ground up for ray tracing. A 60FPS Performance Mode with ray-tracing support is confirmed for launch on Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro, and the publisher's own social post adds that the mode runs at 4K, a qualifier the storefront wording leaves out. The first console gameplay footage, released on 3 September 2026, was captured on PlayStation 5 Pro at 60FPS in that mode. Further detail on the technology, specifications and modes has been promised between now and release. The full platform and storefront breakdown is on Platforms and Age Ratings.