Gun Media and IllFonic’s Friday the 13th: The Game was only released in late May. Despite being a relatively new kid on the gaming block, it’s had quite a turbulent life already.
As we’ve seen previously, the game was hyped out the wazzoo and then some pre-release. Much like Pokémon Go, it sold itself through its concept alone. Also much like Go, the hype grew to a ridiculous pitch that the game’s servers couldn’t possibly hope to handle, and enthusiastic fans were greeted with a cesspool of connection errors, glitches, and bugs as a result.
Some of that is behind us now, and things are looking up, but there are still key mechanical issues with the game that need to be addressed. There’s so much fun in this title, and it’d be such a shame to see all of that potential be wasted by devs who aren’t willing to put in the time.
Financially, Friday the 13th: The Game has been a great success. Earlier today, Eurogamer reported that asymmetrical multiplayer action title had sold 1.8 million copies since its launch just over two months ago. In an interview, Gun media head Wes Keltner stated that the team were thrilled with their success, but their work is far from over. “The team has grown,” he said, “and we are committed as we work to add more content, more kills, more to do and of course the single player component to the game."
This is exactly what fans will need to hear. Just last week, IllFonic was waxing lyrical about the upcoming release of their zombie FPS Dead Alliance (coming later this month). This caused fans to leap to the conclusion that the team would put Friday the 13th on the backburner, and the devs, in turn, hurried out a statement to the contrary. The Friday team is growing, they promised, in number and in passion for the title, and the game’s not going anywhere.
They do seem to be putting their money where their mouth is. Last week’s big update for the Xbox One version finally brought it up to the same level as other systems, so they are listening. If Keltner’s words are to be believed, they’re cooking up something pretty darn neat for the title’s future too. More content? New kills? What will hopefully turn out to be a robust and meaningful single player? Who could refuse?
There are no concrete details on any of this yet, but we can confirm that a physical edition of the game is also on the way. It’ll be priced the same as the digital version, and include some cosmetic DLC that is, for the moment, exclusive to the physical version.
When will the boxed game be released? Oct. 13, 2017. Yep, that’s a Friday, because of course, it is.
