Today is October 12th, and even though there’s almost three weeks left in the spookiest month of the year, I long ago assumed that Gun Media and Illfonic would be forced to move Friday the 13th: The Game from its previously-announced “October 2016” launch date. Today, they made that delay official… but they also announced so much more.
First, the developers confirmed that a single-player campaign (with bots and missions based on the film franchise) is in the works and will be available as a free post-launch update next Summer. The base game, which will include the multiplayer portion of the game and three maps (including the newly-announced Packanack Lodge from Friday the 13th Part 2) will be released for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One in Early 2017. Finally, a PC-only Beta will be available sometime this Fall for everyone who pre-ordered the game.
The expanded scope of Friday the 13th: The Game has also lead Gun Media and Illfonic to include Tommy Jarvis (Jason’s nemesis from The Final Chapter, Part V, Part VI, and Part VII) as a playable character.
“The first thing people are going to read here is delay,” said Wes Kelter, Gun Media’s Studio Head. “We want everyone to be assured that coming to our decision to delay was no easy matter, but we believe that the positives far outweigh the negatives. We’ve been reading day in and day out on our social media feeds that single player and Tommy Jarvis were in such a demand that we couldn’t ignore our fans.”
More information about the delay, the single-player campaign, and the Beta is available in the latest Kickstarter update for Friday the 13th: The Game from the developers.