The Horror Inc. Legal Battle Halts New Content For ‘Friday The 13th: The Game’
As the Halloween franchise has thrived recently with the upcoming release of a new film in theaters, Friday The 13th has been stuck in a quagmire of legalities that has brought a halt to any talk of a new film release in the foreseeable future. The shining light during the legal battle for the franchise rights between Horror Inc., Sean Cunningham, and Victor Miller is the tremendous support and success of Friday The 13th: The Game. The video game has united the fan base and actually ignited new interest in the franchise. Sadly, news came down today from the game’s creator, Gun Media, that because of the legal battle, no more new content will be developed for the game.
UPDATE: Gun Media will not be producing new content for the game, even if the lawsuit is resolved. They will continue to support existing content for the game only.
From Wes Keltner on the F13game.com Site:
Development on games can’t just pause indefinitely and pick back up again; it doesn’t work that way. Especially when you have no idea when that future date will occur. We can’t keep building content that may never see the light of day. That’s bad business. I’ve also had questions about adding “non-F13” related content to the game. “Can’t you make a new level or a new counselor that has nothing to do with the films?” We can’t do that either. We can’t add any content, whatsoever. Nada. Not even a new tree or rock. We can only focus on console dedicated servers, bug fixes, and maintenance.
From F13game.com:
LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY June 11, 2018
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 play modes, 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 truly unfortunate and the fact that we will no longer get the highly anticipated Uber-Jason is really disappointing. Gun Media delivered a game experience well beyond expectations and every fan should be appreciative of the fact that we will always have a completely immersive experience in Crystal Lake that allows us to relive the films over and over again.
Hopefully, once the rights issues are resolved, the game updates will be able to resume and possibly a new film can finally be developed.
