Coming off the high of E3, I did my usual sweep of smaller games that might take advantage of this yearly period of gaming ultra-hype but lack the resources to attend the event proper. Usually there are a delicious smattering of announcements alluding to new content, upcoming projects and all matter of delightful goodies.
But not this year. Not for a game that has delighted me since its release in May 2017.
Friday the 13th: The Game co-creator, Ronnie Hobbs, dropped a bit of news that brought the enthusiasm of the game’s player base to a grinding halt.
This bit of information came at a particularly inopportune time, as the game’s player base was well aware that some very exciting content was nearing completion – content pertaining to the schlocky space romp Jason X, which unsurprisingly saw the undead killing machine Jason Voorhees heading to space to murder space teenagers, in space. I actually completed a series of easter eggs within the game to produce a short video that revealed Jason X within the game, published to our YouTube channel.
Space Jason. Spaceson?
However this has been indefinitely put on hold due to an ongoing lawsuit between the original screenwriter of Friday the 13th, and the original director. Without going into too much detail – surprising no-one, it’s about money. For fans of the Friday the 13th franchise, it’s quite fascinating as it actually affects a great deal more than just the game – it can also be attributed to the lack of a recent Friday the 13th film, considering a sequel was indeed planned for the 2009 revival of the franchise (a film that I didn’t entirely dislike.)
For the developers Friday the 13th: The Game however, this can spell doom for the studio. Gun Media had a strategy for ongoing development of the title, and a great deal of passion for the subject matter. In the post-release months they had demonstrated a great deal of love and respect for both the fans and the film series they adore, adding additional characters directly from the film – including collaborating with original actors when possible.
In their current situation, they are permitting to continue to support the game by way of bug fixes, and delivering on ‘non-franchise’ related content, such as dedicated servers for the console players – but new content that makes use of the Friday the 13th license is entirely off the table. Particularly frustrating when they are already sitting on a payload of new and exciting content, highly anticipated by the player base.
The F13 community currently – Credit to: jobdone44 via Reddit
‘Friday the 13th Part III’ Star Larry Zerner, who is now a lawyer, actually explains that if the entire legal mess was to be resolved, development could continue.
But, it’s the legal system – so who knows. We can only hope it is resolved in a timely manner. Until then, pour one out for a group of passionate people who realised their dream to create the definitive Friday the 13th game, and have now encountered one mother of a speedbump.
