Gun Media is working on its next asymmetrical online multiplayer game based in an iconic film franchise, but its first one is about to get the axe, as Friday the 13th: The Game is getting delisted at the end of the year. However, this official announcement comes right as an unofficial report of a new Friday the 13th game has surfaced.
Why is Friday the 13th: The Game getting delisted?
According to a post on the Friday the 13th game’s Twitter account, the multiplayer game will be pulled from storefronts on December 31, 2023 because of an expired license. Gun has also dropped the price of the base game to $4.99 and made each piece of DLC $0.99. It will all stay at that price until it gets delisted.
Gun also noted that Friday the 13th will stay online until at least December 31, 2024, one year after the license expires. Given the “at least” part, it’s possible that servers will stay up after that.
Friday the 13th: The Game has had to combat licensing issues for years. As noted by YouTuber Matt McMuscles’ dive into its development, a lawsuit between the film’s original screenwriter and the current rights holders stopped all content for the game after a few years. The lawsuit’s sluggishness meant that Gun and Illfonic had to move on. Gun CEO Wes Keltner explained in the aforementioned YouTube video how the ordeal affected him and the team.
“We loved it, and it was taken from us,” said Keltner. “That day still haunts me. We had so many ideas, so much content we were working on that we were forced to stop making. Some folks think we quit because we wanted to. No. We were forced to stop, and it really hurt us as a team. It hurt me personally. I fell into a depression. My heart just got broken, and fans are yelling at us like we were doing this. Like this whole thing was our fault. It was hard. Fans were confused, and we were not allowed to say much. F13 was one of the greatest things to ever happen to me, but also one of the most painful.”
Even though the sun is setting for Gun’s Friday the 13th game, another is seemingly on the horizon. In an interview with RelyOnHorror, longtime Friday the 13th composer Harry Manfredini told the outlet that he was making a new Friday the 13th game with a different studio that has “more realistic looking” characters and will be reportedly “be done in a different style to that of the previous asymmetrical multiplayer title.”
It’s unclear what team would be behind this game, when it might be coming out, or when it could be revealed.
