21 December 2025

Dispatch Dev Talks Potential Season 2 Goals and Challenges

By newsgame


AdHoc Studio recently said it was “days away” from formally mapping out what comes after the breakout first season of Dispatch. The catch: while the studio may already be actively discussing Dispatch Season 2 plans—having already shared some broad goals and challenges related to them—it is currently committed to another project, which significantly complicates things in the near future.

According to AdHoc Studio’s latest update, its hit narrative-driven adventure surpassed 2 million sales as of November 19, just three days shy of its one-month anniversary. By then, the Los Angeles-based developer had already said it would discuss the possibility of Dispatch Season 2, with co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Pierre Shorette saying the team was “gonna have to at least think about” it in an early November 2025 interview.

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AdHoc Considering Dispatch Season 2 ‘as Seriously as Anything’

In a subsequent interview with Eurogamer, Shorette hinted at Dispatch Season 2 plans no longer being a pure hypothetical, saying that AdHoc Studio was “days away” from figuring out what comes next following the game’s success. “We’re entering the time where we’re going to really sit down and lay those plans out,” the official said circa early December 2025. While AdHoc is still not formally committing to a sequel, Shorette shared that Season 2 is being talked about “as seriously as anything.”

AdHoc’s Critical Role Game Complicates Dispatch Season 2 Prospects

One major issue standing in the way of the developer actively pursuing Dispatch Season 2 straight away is AdHoc Studio’s Critical Role game. Shorette describes its current status as “simmering,” while noting the work on it slowed down as Dispatch neared completion, thus demanding more immediate attention and resources. According to the company’s official LinkedIn page, the Dispatch developer has just a few dozen employees as of late 2025. Though AdHoc outsources work like many similarly sized studios—Dispatch credits list 530 professional roles—the core team was already stretched thin managing two projects, with one slowing to accommodate the other. Given that, AdHoc may be reluctant to start juggling multiple games again right away. And yet even Critical Role CEO Travis Willingham wants to see Dispatch Season 2 “as quickly as possible,” having said as much during a recent GalaxyCon appearance.

If It Happens, Dispatch Season 2 Would Be Made Much Faster Than Season 1

The interview also saw Shorette address the potential turnaround time for Season 2, noting that it would have to be significantly shorter than Dispatch‘s eight-episode debut season. He used a music metaphor to illustrate the pressure: “You have your whole life to write your first album and then eight months to write your second.” He acknowledged that this accelerated development cycle presents its own challenges, especially compared to the “GTA 6 amounts of time” the team took with Season 1. “We had so long with this [Season 1], seven years is a lot of time,” he said. “If anything, it would have been embarrassing if it was bad.”

We had so long with this [Season 1], seven years is a lot of time. If anything, it would have been embarrassing if it was bad.

What AdHoc Says About Dispatch Season 2 Creative Goals

On the topic of creative goals, Shorette said a potential Season 2 would need to meet heightened fan expectations, noting that players would approach it with preferences, theories, and emotional attachments that simply didn’t exist during Season 1. “It’ll be about what it’s not as much as what it is,” he said, calling this an “extra challenge.” Beyond that, there are things that were left on the cutting room floor for Season 1 that could make a return in Season 2. Among them is a concept for a Korean idol-like hero. Nick Herman, one of AdHoc Studio’s co-founders, described the character as resembling “a Saja Boy undercover.” When asked about missing the opportunity to release a game with a K-pop star-like character just months after the debut of KPop Demon Hunters, Herman acknowledged the timing, saying, “Yeah, that would have been great. We should do that for Season 2. If there is a Season 2.”

Dispatch Season 1 Lost a Publisher Halfway Through Development

Regardless of what comes next, the commercial success of Dispatch allows AdHoc Studio to pursue its upcoming project(s) with a lot of financial peace of mind. That marks a sharp contrast to the situation just a few years ago, when it was relying on contract work to stay afloat and Dispatch‘s original publisher dropped the project for financial reasons, as revealed by Herman in the same interview. While he didn’t share many specifics, Herman said the publisher exited midway through development, with Shorette adding that this unnamed company was “connected with Embracer [Group].” The stated timeline corresponds with the start of Embracer’s aggressive cost-cutting efforts announced in June 2023, which preceded years of industry-wide layoffs. Dispatch never secured a new publishing partner, with AdHoc ultimately self-publishing Season 1.


Dispatch Tag Page Cover Art

Systems


Released

October 22, 2025

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Blood, Crude Humor, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol

Developer(s)

AdHoc Studio

Publisher(s)

AdHoc Studio


Source: AdHoc Studio / Bluesky