Development History

Metro 2039 represents the longest development cycle in the Metro series, spanning roughly seven years since Metro Exodus was released in 2019. 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.

4A Games: The Studio

4A Games was founded in Ukraine and remains a majority-Ukrainian studio. Its teams are based in Kyiv and Malta, and the studio has grown to more than 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 and game 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, reflecting 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.

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.

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. The studio described the ray-tracing implementation in Metro 2039 as advancing beyond what was achieved in Metro Exodus, targeting the capabilities of 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 and the Epic Games 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.