Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 lands August 25: four-marine co-op for $50
Cold Iron and Daybreak's co-op shooter finally has a date: it arrives August 25 for $50, with a 40th-anniversary Premium edition and cosmetic packs already confirmed.
After months of a vague "late Q3," Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 finally has a hard date: August 25 — a touch earlier than expected. The sequel to 2021's co-op shooter shows up with a confirmed price, editions, and cosmetic packs already up for sale, as Massively OP reported off the official announcement.
Date, platforms and price
AFE2 ships August 25, 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam and Epic Games Store). The Digital Standard Edition runs $49.99; the 40th Anniversary Premium Edition bumps to $69.99 and throws in three cosmetic packs marking the Alien franchise's 40th anniversary. Pre-orders are live on every platform.
The 40th-anniversary cosmetics
The three packs celebrate four decades of Alien and can be bought separately for $20 each: Herk's Mondo Pest Pack, Ripley's Hive Exterminator Pack and Rain's Jackson's Star Pack. They're bundled into the Premium edition, so the price gap works out to roughly a pack and a half.
What's new versus the original
The clearest upgrade is squad size: co-op grows from three to four players. Colonial Marines still drop into xenomorph-infested colony zones, but a new Specialist class lets you mix and match abilities from the other classes for hybrid builds. Cold Iron also promises deeper progression systems and better technical performance than the 2021 game.
Cold Iron Studios is back as developer, with Daybreak publishing — the latter reportedly in the middle of acquiring the studio. It's a mid-tier release aiming to go toe-to-toe with established co-op shooters like Deep Rock Galactic and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. Cross-play and the post-launch roadmap are still under wraps.
With the date this close, the real question is whether the extra squad slot and the Specialist class are enough to keep the co-op loop humming past launch week. We'll find out August 25. Follow the details on the game's Steam page.