There's a bit of bad news if you've been looking forward to fishing horror Dredge's first paid expansion: developer Black Salt Games has delayed its release from Q4 this year into 2024.

More Dredge, both free and paid, was confirmed to be on the way back in May, with the game's The Iron Rig expansion - focusing on the machinations of the Ironhaven Corporation - looking to be its most significant chunk of new content.

"Originally, we planned to spend a few months crafting this exciting addition and release it in Q4 this year," Black Salt Games explained in its delay announcement. "However, as we progressed, we were faced with the reality that, given the time of the year, we'd need more lead time to coordinate our marketing and make the launch as exciting as it could be."

"We were genuinely disheartened because we knew had made a commitment to all our dedicated players," the developer continued, "but we firmly believed there was only one path forward and that was to delay The Iron Rig until next year."

While The Iron Rig has slipped, Black Salt Games says it still plans to deliver "an exciting DLC to our players in 2023". This mysterious addition will, it seems, also be paid content of some sort, as the studio adds it'll reveal "when it will be available and how much it will cost" soon.

Eurogamer contributor Edwin Evans-Thirlwell quite enjoyed Dredge when he reviewed it back in March, applauding its unusual blend of fishing and Lovecraftian horror, while ultimately concluding it was probably more successful at the former than the latter.