Here’s everything we know so far about Tripwire Interactive’s third Killing Floor entry, including when we expect the game to launch.

By Matt Poskitt

Published: Tuesday, 29 August 2023 at 16:24 PM


Killing Floor 3 is real! Almost seven years on from the launch of its predecessor, Tripwire Interactive has finally confirmed the existence of the next instalment in the first-person shooter series. And there’s plenty to talk about.

While not a franchise that might make headlines as often as others, the Killing Floor fanbase is incredibly passionate – with over 28 million players around the globe. Many of them will naturally be eager to take advantage of the enhanced visuals and tear into the gory action that is set to be a major part of the upcoming release.

Equally, that excitement is something the developers share themselves.

“As a lifelong horror fan, it’s been an honour to lead our passionate development team as we create Killing Floor 3,” said Tripwire Interactive studio creative director Bryan Wynia, speaking on the announcement.

“We’re extremely excited for fans to finally experience the world we’ve been building.”

Tripwire Interactive CEO and co-founder Alan Wilson added: “It’s hard to believe that Killing Floor is almost 15 years old now. We’ve provided free support to the player base all that time, through two incarnations, so now we’re beyond excited to start showing you what mayhem the next iteration of the franchise will bring you!”

To help fuel the fandom until the game makes its way to store shelves, here’s everything we know about Killing Floor 3, including its expected release date, trailer and how to pre-order the game.

When is the Killing Floor 3 release date?

Killing Floor 3 main title card showing monsters with metal headsets
The Killing Floor 3 main title card.
Tripwire Interactive

No official release date has been given for Killing Floor 3, with developer Tripwire Interactive simply stating that the game is “coming soon”.

A release window of late 2024 has been shared several times online, however, but that’s purely speculative.

Looking back at the release dates of the first two titles, we can see that May and November launches took place in 2009 and 2016, respectively.

  • Killing Floor – 14th May 2009
  • Killing Floor 2 – 18th November 2016

Potentially, a November date might be on the cards since May is clearly too early. We’ll have to wait to find out more information.

Can I pre-order Killing Floor 3?

Killing Floor 3 is not yet available for pre-order. Several landing pages across the PlayStation Store, Xbox and Steam are now live, but no price or pre-order options can be accessed at the time of writing.

The price of Killing Floor 3 is yet to be determined either. After spending time in early access at £19.99, Killing Floor 2 was eventually released at an RRP of £29.99. We’d like to think this might indicate that its sequel will be priced the same, though, with the ever-rising cost of development, we feel a £39.99 price point seems more likely. We should get more details in 2024.

Which consoles and platforms can play Killing Floor 3?

A player with a gun shooting a monster
Killing Floor in action.
Tripwirte Interactive

Killing Floor 3 will be available to play on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC (via Steam and Epic Games Store) from launch.

Whether Tripwire Interactive decides to bring the game to Nintendo Switch and last-gen consoles, such as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, is yet to be determined. Killing Floor 3 utilises Unreal Engine 5 which does support these platforms, after all.

That said, the studio has not previously ported past iterations to the Nintendo platform or last-gen consoles, suggesting next-gen only will be the main focus of Killing Floor 3 for the foreseeable future.

Killing Floor 3 gameplay and story details

Very little gameplay has been shown for Killing Floor 3 so far, with only a few seconds of footage premiered during its reveal at Gamescom 2023 (see further down this page).

The brief clip features one of the enemy’s heads (known as ZEDs) being perforated with a knife of some kind before one then smashes through a door and launches itself towards the camera while the player attempts to hold it off with an assault rifle.

A description of Killing Floor 3 has also been uploaded, providing details surrounding the story: “It’s 2091 and megacorp Horzine has produced the ultimate army: an obedient horde of bioengineered monstrosities called ZEDs.

“Now, only the rebel group Nightfall stands between these infernal creations and the future of humanity.”

The main gameplay will see you suit up as a Nightfall specialist before joining forces with up to five teammates to battle waves of ZEDs, earn cash, access skills and construct the ultimate arsenal.