A ‘Slime Rancher’ sequel is coming to Xbox Series X and PC in 2022

Microsoft’s E3 2021 event had its share of surprise sequels, but this may be one of the most… adorable. Monomi Park has revealed that Slime Rancher 2 is coming to Xbox Series X/S and PC (via Steam and the Epic Games Store) in 2022. You’re still running around an open world gathering relentlessly cute slimes of various forms, but you’ll now explore a new land (Rainbow Island) full of “ancient technology.” It’s a very, very pretty, low-pressure ‘life simulator’ game, in other words.

The visuals have received an upgrade, of course — on top of 4K support, you’ll see those slimes in vivid detail through dynamic lighting and more advanced effects shaders. You can likewise expect “spectacularly unpredictable” physics as critters bounce off each other.

This may be a bigger deal than it seems at first blush. The original Slime Rancher has racked up over 10 million players since it debuted in 2017, making it a prime candidate for a sequel. Notably, though, there’s no mention of PlayStation, Mac or Linux releases this time around. Monomi is clearly hoping that its focus on Xbox and Windows will be enough to ensure strong sales for the sequel, at least for now.