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The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe goes back to work with April release date

Stanley is about to go back to the office, this time on PC and consoles.

Ozzie Mejia

March 30, 2022 10:50 AM

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Stanley has been running on the hamster wheel for more than a decade. Back in the early days of the indie gaming boom, The Stanley Parable stood out as a wonderfully unique and delightfully twisted story-based title. A few years ago, original creator Davey Wreden and the team at Crows Crows Crows teased that Stanley would return bigger than ever with a new Ultra Deluxe version, but the COVID-19 pandemic hit and things slowed down. Now it looks like Stanley's about to go back to the office, as a new trailer confirmed the official release date.

In a particular bit of genius, recall that The Stanley Parable originally followed the story of Employee 427. With that in mind, what better day to release The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe than on 4/27? Yes, the game is now set to release on April 27, 2022.

Recall that The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe was first unveiled at The Game Awards 2018. Creator Davey Wreden had hoped to have the game ready in the next year, but after an initial bout of delays, COVID-19 further mucked up the game's development cycle. For the uninitiated, The Stanley Parable was an early Steam Greenlight success story, starting off life as a Half-Life 2 mod. The game follows Stanley (Employee 427) through work in a seemingly mundane office, only for him to find increasingly twisted reveals until he gets Groundhog Day'd right back to his cubicle. It racked up acclaim from a number of websites, including here at Shacknews. For fun, check out this 2011 interview with Wreden, just to get an idea of how long this game has been around.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe will release on PC (via Steam), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch on Wednesday, April 27, marking the game's first official jump to consoles. If you can't wait that long to hear the British narrator's sardonic wit, remember that you can always pick up the Dota 2 Announcer Pack from the Dota 2 website while you wait.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?