Friday the 13th: The Game has been axed - but there’s good news
Camp Crystal Lake just got a little safer, as Jason Voorhees is sent bobbing back to the depths below, and Gun Media confirms it's stopping work on Friday the 13th: The Game. With Dead by Daylight holding the crown as the ultimate asymmetrical horror game, Friday the 13th: The Game has failed to escape its looming shadow.
First released in 2017, Friday the 13th: The Game took the horror icon of Jason Voorhees and let up to seven players try to escape the masked menace at Camp Crystal Lake. Pulling from the 12 movies of the beloved horror series, it's a love letter to Jason, but sadly, no more.
Friday the 13th: The Game is winding down
It's the end of an era, as Gun Media took to Twitter and confirmed Friday the 13th: The Game is being sent off to pasture by the end of 2023. We had a good run, but as of December 31, 2023, you won't be able to buy the title. Friday the 13th: The Game will function until December 31, 2024, when it will officially end.
To celebrate/commiserate, Gun has made the base game just $5, while individual DLCs are just $1 from now until December 31. It's seemingly not rolled out everywhere yet, as Friday the 13th: The Game is still listed for $15 on Steam. Either way, this is the end of an era for our machete-wielding madman.
Now, Gun is turning its attention to the upcoming Texas Chainsaw Massacre game. Coming out on August 18, it's effectively Friday the 13th: The Game...but with Leatherface. Promising to up the ante from its work on Friday, Gun has high hopes that it will be revving its chainsaws for years to come.
A new Friday the 13th game is coming
Click to enlargeWe're not surprised that the licence ran out on Friday the 13th, with Gun Media being dragged into the franchise's bitter lawsuit. There's a reason we haven't had a Jason movie since 2009's Friday the 13th reboot, with director Sean S. Cunningham and writer Victor Miller locking horns over the rights.
Cunningham and Miller's bitter battle meant plans for a Jason X-inspired map never made it into Friday the 13th: The Game, and with Gun treading around this since 2018, we've been counting down until its demise for the past five years.
On the plus side, Cunningham and Miller have finally sorted their differences, meaning the Friday name is branching out in new ways. Speaking to Rely on Horror, longtime Friday the 13th composer Harry Manfredini confirmed a new game is on the way in some form.
Manfredini couldn't confirm which platforms, who is developing, or what kind of game this mysterious Jason title is, other than the fact it will have "more realistic looking" characters than Gun's game. Either way, we're excited that the death of Friday the 13th: The Game shouldn't put Voorhees in the ground for too long.
