Korea. IL-2 Games Series Roadmap for 2026. IL-2: Korea Steam Page Now Live

[LukeFF]

Hey everyone!

Today, we are presenting the 2026 development roadmap for the IL-2 series and Steam page release. The key milestone of the year will be the release of Korea. IL-2 Games Series, a next-generation combat flight simulator, as well as the launch of the first DLC planned for the end of the year.

At the same time, the team continues to develop IL-2: Great Battles, dedicated to the events of the Second World War. One of the most anticipated DLCs, featuring flyable bombers, is scheduled for release by the end of 2026.

Today, the Korea. IL-2 Games Series Steam page has been opened https://store.steampowered.com/app/247970/Koreya_Seriya_igr_Il2/. Players can explore the game’s main features and add it to their wishlists. Pre-orders are already available on the official IL-2 website https://il2-series.com/en/store/korea/new/.

Korea. IL-2 Games Series is being developed on a new engine featuring improved flight and damage models, while preserving the series’ signature balance between realism and accessibility. The release is scheduled for Q2 2026.

[Leifr]

B26 and P47M, let's go! 😍

[G-SPIT]

Yes yes yes so Happy that is KOREA coming to Steam 

P-47M 👍💪

[TimSell75]

How big are the chances we will finally see B17s and other four engine bombers so planes like ME262 or TA152 make sense in their intended roles?

[Sulaco]

Are you locked in to a full release only or will you be opening early access/testing to pre-orders in the months leading up to release(outside of the current closed beta you're running)?

[LukeFF]

Early Access starts after the end of closed beta testing. 

[JMax]

  P   47   M  

[JL1]

Looking good!  My only problem is not enough hours in the day to enjoy all this.

[Dash,Polder]

Can you define exactly what early access means?  What is open early exactly, the entire game as late beta or full release, or partial with a partial plane list, and to whom will it be accessible?  

[FTC_Oakwoodson77]

42 minutes ago, Dash,Polder said:

Can you define exactly what early access means?  What is open early exactly, the entire game as late beta or full release, or partial with a partial plane list, and to whom will it be accessible?  

Everyone who pre-ordered the game should get early access.

[AcesDarthBubu]

So great battles will not end with the 6 collector planes but will have longer product longevity in new modules , enhancements ? Support i take it is granted.

[Kilo_0601]

The people of Pre-order IL2:Korea could transfer all the content to Steam ?  Or just playing standalone version ?

[AndreiTomescu]

so, gentleman from the development team, may i resume the good things I understand you are planning on releasing:

1. for GB, the skinny S&L module will come into its own completion till the year's end, plus several new planes, with the fabled finnish airforce depending on the external Finnish development.

Question: will this finalization include the extension of the actual map?

2. For Korea, I saw better graphics, much better landscape and interactions, a modern and actually state-of-the-art GUI, and lots of promises and hopes (that i belive will come true in the limits of reality) regarding the shortcomings of the previous title (Great Battles)

Question: what about single player content? what to expect when we're expecting ? 🙂 

Career mode, i understood will be. Scripted payware campaigns? Quick missions only for the beginning ? Easy mission generator ? Dinamic career ?

From my POW (point of view, not prisoner of war 🙂 ) the looks bring customers on the short/hype term, but the mechanics, AI and CONTENT is what keeps a title running long term (see the exceptional longevity of the KING = Il-2 Sturmovik series)

so, what content will be, explicitily ?

Thank you !

[LukeFF]

9 hours ago, AndreiTomescu said:

Question: will this finalization include the extension of the actual map?

Yes, work on the map is ongoing. Our Finnish compatriots can tell you in more detail what is planned.

9 hours ago, AndreiTomescu said:

Question: what about single player content? what to expect when we're expecting ? 🙂 

Career mode, i understood will be. Scripted payware campaigns? Quick missions only for the beginning ? Easy mission generator ? Dinamic career ?

Career mode will not be fully dynamic, but will have you as the commander in charge, assigning pilots to missions, requesting resources, etc. The other single-player content will be a lot like it is now, with some new additions, such as training missions for a given aircraft type.

[CatteMoto]

I'm very excited for the new bombers! Korea is looking great too 

[Luger1969]

Is that a B26 cockpit and bomb aimer position in the roadmap?

[Avimimus]

21 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Career mode will not be fully dynamic, but will have you as the commander in charge, assigning pilots to missions, requesting resources, etc.

Although I will note that the Golden Age of flight simulators had a wide variety on what is considered a 'dynamic campaign'.

Campaigns which allowed influencing outcomes at a strategical level were actually fairly rare (SWOTL, Falcon 3, EEAH/EECH, some versions of EF-2000/TAW), and some of the others with this feature were scripted campaigns (with different outcomes/branching structures).

On the other hand, many simulations which had a campaign mission generator were described as 'dynamic' rather than scripted. Basically, if the missions were procedural, changed over time, and not hand-made - it was considered dynamic.

So whether the Korea campaign is considered dynamic is debateable, and I'd consider the non-scripted Il-2 Great Battles campaigns (and third party campaign generators) as all being dynamic.

 

  

5 hours ago, Luger1969 said:

Is that a B26 cockpit and bomb aimer position in the roadmap?

I think that is a B-26 cockpit, B-25c/d, and A-26G are confirmed as plans. Also the Fw-189. See the thread in the Great Battles section of the forum!

[Aapje]

You are right that 'dynamic' is not a black and white issue and that there are various levels or variants to it. It even goes further than that, because the missions themselves can be dynamic, or highly scripted.

For example, you can have missions where the opposition is dynamically generated. So during the mission, the game could decide what planes to spawn in, how many, what route they fly, etc. That is extremely dynamic, actually to a point where there are big disadvantages to it, like not being able to replay the exact same mission.

Then you have Pat's system, where the opposition is predetermined, but it is scripted independent of the player. So they fly their routes and if you fly slower of faster, you can encounter them in different places, they may already be in combat with other planes, etc.

And you have the GB career system, where the opposition seems to often be triggered by player actions. So the opposition only spawns in when you hit a trigger, and then you always get the same encounter, at the same place.

I personally very much prefer the greater dynamics of Pats solution, because the GB system is too obviously fake. Also, Pat's generator has more diversity of missions, which may be a-historic, but it is just way more fun than flying the same (few) mission type(s) day after day. 

I personally don't really care that much about adding dynamic stuff to the strategic level, because if I want to play an RTS, I will play an RTS, not a poor implementation of RTS within a flight sim. It also encourages the very a-historic notion that you can win the war by yourself, when the actual reality of war is pretty much always that the soldiers fought for minor victories and major victories came through collective action, not individual excellence.

I'm still worried that the devs didn't learn from PWCG and adopted that solution for the new career, and instead focused on grafting some resource management onto it, which I doubt that I'll care for, and which also has a big chance to backfire. In GB, you lose a lot of team mates/planes due to the bad AI that flies into mountains, other planes, shoot friendlies down, fails to manage their fuel properly, etc. So if they didn't make major improvement to that, the new resource management thing may just cause us to get even more frustrated with the AI and make us feel that we aren't in control sufficiently, but simply have to get lucky with the AI.

[LukeFF]

6 hours ago, Luger1969 said:

Is that a B26 cockpit and bomb aimer position in the roadmap?

B-26 cockpit, yes, and B-25 nose section. 

[Art-J]

2 hours ago, LukeFF said:

and B-25 nose section. 

No it ain't 😛. That's also Marauder allright.

I wonder how many crew stations are going to be fully modelled in both bombers, although I'm sure many guys will be excited to fly these even if some stations are skipped.

All and all, a very interesting newsletter indeed.

[Enceladus828]

On 3/3/2026 at 1:30 PM, TimSell75 said:

How big are the chances we will finally see B17s and other four engine bombers so planes like ME262 or TA152 make sense in their intended roles?

Maybe if the Bomber aircraft DLC sells very well they will look into adding an AI B-17 at the least.

[Avimimus]

2 hours ago, Art-J said:

I wonder how many crew stations are going to be fully modelled in both bombers, although I'm sure many guys will be excited to fly these even if some stations are skipped.

I know that - for Korea - I'd be happy with just the cockpit for a solid-nosed B-26 Invader... and slightly happier to have the gunner periscope view... but it really doesn't need more than one interior. Most of the Invaders in Korea had their ventral turrets removed, and some even had the dorsal turret removed as well.

 

  

1 hour ago, Enceladus828 said:

Maybe if the Bomber aircraft DLC sells very well they will look into adding an AI B-17 at the least.

That would require porting back some of the improvements from the Korea engine to Great Battles... not impossible, but also not that likely. That said, they'd have the experience from doing the simplified systems for the B-29 and the codebase probably hasn't diverged that much (I'm not sure how modular the code is). It'd also be really neat if they could bring infantry into Flying Circus or Tank Crew... again, not likely, but one can dream? We just have to be ready to not get disappointed when none of it happens - and to recognise that a lot of these things might be quite a bit harder than we think.

[LukeFF]

3 hours ago, Art-J said:

I wonder how many crew stations are going to be fully modelled in both bombers, although I'm sure many guys will be excited to fly these even if some stations are skipped.

It'll be just like all the other bombers we've modeled so far.

[Philthy]

6 hours ago, LukeFF said:

It'll be just like all the other bombers we've modeled so far.

Please, please, please make the navigator’s seat in the Mossie occupiable!

[PaperPilot]

I'm going to miss development on Great Battles once they have finished with the last six collector planes.