V Rising was one of my biggest gaming surprises when it launched into Early Access in 2022. I ended up spending over 130 hours with the game across multiple playthroughs, praising its addictive gameplay loop that blends action RPG combat with crafting survival and castle-building mechanics. While I wished the game had more of a story to go along with its excellent boss fights, V Rising delivered on nearly every other front. Now, developer Stunlock Studios has confirmed that there won’t be a V Rising 1.2 update, but there’s a good reason for that.
In a new developer update, Stunlock Studios announced that V Rising, in its current form, is a complete experience and the studio is no longer developing new content updates for the game. The studio will continue to support V Rising with balance patches and bug fixes, but its focus has shifted to something bigger. Stunlock Studios is working on a new game set in the V Rising universe, one it’s calling its “most ambitious project yet” in its 15-year history.
The studio didn’t share many details about the new project, only saying that it will offer “greater depth, danger, and mystery” than V Rising while feeling both familiar and new. The team has been experimenting with fresh ideas that weren’t possible within V Rising’s existing framework, as the foundation they built over the years, while strong, has limitations that made certain ideas difficult to explore. The studio also looked into official modding support for V Rising but ultimately determined the game’s structure wouldn’t allow for mod tools at the standard the community deserves. What the team learned from that process, however, will be applied to the new game.
It’s still very early in development, so it’ll likely be a while before we see anything concrete. That said, given how much fun we had with V Rising, I’m genuinely excited to see what Stunlock Studios does with a clean slate and a bigger vision. Sounds like the hunt for blood continues.
