Is there any thoughts about if next episode will be (when it releases in 2027+) a season finale or a game finale?
There will be a Season 4, so just Season finale.
But DPC already confirmed that season 4 will be a lot different compared to the other seasons, so you can expect that episode 12 will close a lot plots and that season 4 will feel very different.
If you ask me, episode 12 will be the biggest episode so far, ok thats not really a surprise, but i mean WAY bigger (like two episodes at once). My guess is, DPC will close most of the open Plots. Or at least "solve" them so only a "epilogue" is left for them to see how everything goes after the plotline concludes.
So overall, episode 11 had 7000 renders, and i think episode 12 will have round about 10.000. And it will take more time to develop... half a year on top i would say. So... basically... 2 years from now episode 12 will be ready. MAYBE because christmas will still be a thing in the game (christmas eve is still in the open) DPC is aiming for christmas 2026, thats my optimistic guess if iam right about the bigger size of the episode.
But only if iam right about the size... otherwise it will be earlier. I wouldnt rule out a release in 2026, but if iam right about the size... early 2027 is more realistic... earlier would be optimistic as i said.
Good news _if_ iam right. Season 4 will be more kinetic, and propably shorter and faster developed too...
But like everytime... its only a guessing game and not even DPC can know how big the episode will be exactly and when it will be released... the only thing DPC knows for sure at this point is what AT LEAST will be in that episode, but so far he always added more to the episode than originally planned because of new ideas during the dev cycle of an episode.