Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School launches on PC, PS5 and Game Pass

Coin Crew Games and publisher iam8bit have released Escape Academy 2: Back 2 School across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox platforms. You can pick it up on Steam, the PlayStation Store, and the Xbox Store for $19.99 (with a 15% launch discount on Steam), or play it at no extra cost through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

The puzzle sequel was first announced during the ID@Xbox Showcase in April, when the studio originally let slip that Escape Academy 2 was targeting a November 2026 launch. While the first game released in July 2022 and eventually drew over 4 million players across its linear sequence of rooms, this follow-up turns the school grounds into an interconnected open-world hub.

The whole campus is a trap

Instead of picking isolated stages from a menu, you now walk between classes through a campus full of hidden tunnels, secret passageways, and optional side quests. Areas like the Headmaster's Tower and the Humanities Campus return from the 2022 original, rebuilt with updated visuals and considerably fewer safety regulations.

The curriculum covers everything from picking locks inside a detention cell to solving directional dial puzzles in a flooding ship hold, alongside spiked ceilings and 100-foot drops. If you're anything like me, adding a ticking clock to a math puzzle only guarantees that two people will yell wrong answers at each other until the room floods, so the new optional No-Timer Mode is a smart addition.

Every puzzle room and campus secret works in solo play or two-player co-op, either online or via local split-screen. I'm curious whether the open-world hub actually adds to the puzzle design or just pads out the walk between the main rooms, though tucking traps directly into the hallways is a good excuse to keep players poking at the scenery. Musician Doseone is also back to handle the soundtrack, supplying a fresh batch of beats for studying and mild panic.

From real-world arcades to digital lockpicking

Coin Crew Games has a solid background for this specific genre. Co-founders Wyatt Bushnell (yes, the youngest son of Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell) and Mike Salyh met in 2017 while designing physical escape rooms and arcade cabinets for the Los Angeles amusement center Two Bit Circus. Before pivoting to console and PC games during the 2020 lockdowns, the studio built location-based arcade machines like Hot Wheels: King of the Road and Battle Bowling for chains like Dave & Buster's and Round1.

That physical design background carried over into the first Escape Academy, which focused on keeping players from getting stuck on obscure moon logic. For the sequel's storyline, returning faculty and new professors guide students through a conspiracy tied to the founding of the school.

Alongside the standard release, iam8bit is selling a Deluxe Edition that bundles the base game with a Supporter Pack and a Season Pass. That pass includes ten animal masks for character customization and two upcoming story expansions with extra escape rooms and side quests. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players are mentioned in some of the launch materials, though the store listings focus primarily on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC with Xbox Play Anywhere support.