sisslethecat
My heart breaks just reading the press release for this.
Friday The 13th: The Game has had it pretty rough since launch. An unstable connection for the first few weeks, players jumping ship for similar games like Dead by Daylight, and an unpredictable drip feed of small and arguably unremarkable content, it’s been an uphill battle for a game with so much promise. The struggle is about to get that much harder as a legal dispute over the Friday license has forced developer Gun Media to shut down production for any and all future content for the game. From the press release:
Friday the 13th: The Game has established a loyal and excited fan base over the last year. As publisher/developer, Gun and IllFonic have made every effort to provide our fans with an authentic and great gaming experience.
As many in our community may be aware, a legal claim has been made which could affect all future Friday the 13th intellectual property. Although in the past the game has not been subject to any such claim, new content and material going forward will be affected. An initial decision in this case was expected in October 2017, but no decision has yet been issued. The court review of the legal rights is in process, but final resolution may take some time. Until the claim rights can be dismissed or resolved, no new content can be released.
When we originally learned that the game fell within the crosshairs of this legal dispute, we tried to balance the creation of new content requested by our fans against the maintenance and bug fixing that our community expects and deserves. We attempted to do both within the limits of the legal case.
We’ve now been forced to accept that the lawsuit makes future content for the game, including alternate playmodes, new playable Jasons and Counselors, and new maps, unfeasible now or in the future. Although the listed content types will be affected, we remain committed to launching dedicated servers on our console platforms and providing the continued maintenance and bug fixing important to supporting our fan base.
So what does this mean exactly? There will be no additional content added to Friday the 13th: The Game. This includes “Uber Jason”, The Grendel Map, Jason Kill Packs, Clothing, Emotes and new Counselors.
– Gun
This is effectively a tragedy, and could ultimately be the death of Friday the game. The Friday franchise as a whole has been suffering from a long and drawn out legal battle for the last decade or so, which is why there hasn’t been a new Friday film since 2009’s reboot. This is a huge shame, and we can only hope that the legal dispute gets resolved quickly for the sake of the game (and the developers, who put a cubic assload of work into the game already), but in this market even the news that production is halting is enough to spell death. We can only hope for the best, but the future for Friday the 13th The Game looks grim.
