Celeste’s free DLC chapter, the long awaited “Farewell” levels, arrives on Monday, Sept. 9. It’s also a farewell of sorts to the studio name behind the challenging platformer. Creator Matt Thorson and their colleagues have established a studio under a new name, called Extremely OK Games, retiring the Matt Makes Games label that had published Celeste.
But first, the DLC! Thorson announced the add-on at the end of 2018, but then had to delay the release past the game’s first birthday, when they’d originally hoped to launch it. Called Chapter 9: Farewell, the free update adds another 100 levels, for a total of more than 800 in the full game. There’s also another 40 minutes of new music from composer Lena Raine.
“Reconnect with beloved characters for a final goodbye,” Thorson wrote on the new Extremely OK Games website. “There’s several brand new mechanics and items to discover and play with.” Players get to the new content by completing Chapter 8.
Thorson noted that the update for Xbox One may not be released on the same day as the other platforms. “We apologize, but coordinating this patch across all consoles was challenging for our tiny studio,” they said. “If it doesn’t make the 9th, it will release soon after.”
Further, the limited run physical release of the game “will enter production shortly,” with Chapter 9 finished at last. “We know that people have been waiting for that to ship for a long time,” Thorson said.
As for Extremely OK games, the studio’s website says only that it is working on an upcoming “mystery game.” Thorson and three colleagues have set up shop in Vancouver. “On TowerFall, my collaborators took a larger role than I anticipated, and on Celeste, it was obvious that calling ourselves Matt Makes Games had become silly,” they wrote. “Forming EXOK has also conveniently allowed us to restructure things in a more equitable fashion, so that we can all share ownership over our collective efforts.”
Correction, Sept. 6, 8:05 PM ET: This story initially and accidentally misgendered Matt Thorsen. It has been corrected. Thank you to those who commented. We closed the Polygon forums today and it had the unintended effect of also shutting down comments across the site. The comments on this story were not locked to prevent feedback, and we’re grateful for our readers holding us to a high standard. Our product team is currently working to get the comments section on, thanks for your patience.