For horror fans, 2024 has headlined many disappointing and worrying industry developments, such as claims of theDead Spacefranchise being shuttered againor theclosure ofThe Evil Withinstudio Tango Gameworks by Microsoft.
News of this kind does not portray an optimistic outlook for big-budget efforts in the genre but rather suggests a steady decline in publisher confidence for horror games to be profitable.
This is in stark contrast to only a year prior, as 2023 saw the release of games likeResident Evil 4 (2023),Dead Space (2023)andAlan Wake II, along with new entries in theAlone in the DarkandSilent Hillfranchises looming on the horizon. What happened?
Reflecting on over a decade of horror
It appeared as though horror games were undergoing a renaissance not that long ago. The genre suffered from a long stagnation during the early-to-mid 2010s, during which point franchises likeSilent HillandFatal Framewere almost entirely absent. Meanwhile, attempts at new IPs likeThe Evil Withinstumbled, and even the genre-definingResident Evilsuffered an action-horror identity crisis.
It wasn’t all bad, though. The indie scene is filled with break-out hits likeAmnesia: The Dark Descent,Outlast,Slender: The Eight Pages, andFive Nights at Freddy’s. For a time, it seemed that the future of this genre would be entrusted to these smaller, more humble endeavors.
In the late 2010s, the financial and critical success ofResident Evil 7: BiohazardandResident Evil 2 (2019)reignited the belief that big-budget horror was commerically viable. Each soldover 13 million copies, becoming Capcom’s 3rd and 4th best selling games to date. This spurred many publishers to try and revive their own horror properties, such asDead Space (2023),Alone in the Dark (2024), andSilent Hill 2 (2024).
This was cause for celebration among fans of these long-dormant franchises. The unfortunate caveat to all this was the publisher’s high expectations that these IPs would produce a golden goose, which ultimately served as the undoing for at least a few of these properties.
Bright prospects cast a long shadow
Publisher Krafton Inc. and developer Striking Distance Studiosinvested $200 billion won ($162 million USD)into 2022’sThe Callisto Protocol, aiming to capitalize on the void left byDead Space. Ironically, neither its game nor theDead Spaceremake would recapture that market, and both games would sell under expectations.The Callisto Protocol’sfailure to meet sales targets led tolayoffsand thedeparture of CEO Glen Schofieldat Striking Distance Studios.
A similar fate was met byAlone in the Dark (2024), after suffering“softer-than-expected performance”in sales. Developer Pieces Interactive faced layoffs before ultimately seeing publisher Embracer Grouppull the plug on the entire studioand plunging thefuture ofAlone in the Darkinto uncertainty.
The problem is that modern video games are just incredibly expensive to make. They demand hundreds of man-hours to craft intricate and detailed worlds for players to explore. Horror, in particular, requires an immersive atmosphere that has become paramount to the experience.
The catch is that a strongly performing game does not translate to immediate profit.Alan Wake IIis anunmitigated triumphfor Remedy Entertainment, receiving widespread acclaim and multiple awards for its achievements in story and presentation, all made possible by a budget that ballooned alongside its ambitions. ThoughAlan Wake IIisRemedy’s fastest-selling title to date, the gamehas yet to break even on production expenses. If not for being100 percent funded under the Epic Games Publishing label, it’s unclear whether the game would have seen the light of day.
Aspirations now met with trepidation
It’s little wonder why publishers are so careful in choosing which projects to greenlight from their studios. Capcom is leading the pack in horror withResident Evil, having seemingly found the winning formula: legacy status as a decades-old franchise, multimedia saturation with Hollywood films, investing ininternally crafted technologyto streamline production, and intelligent planning for development pipelines, which includes very deliberate consideration for which projects are most worthwhile to undertake.
Unsurprisingly, the popular safe choice is nowto remake previously well-received titlesfrom the publisher’s catalog. This lets them leverage the original’s success and marketability, as well as cut down on pre-production planning by using an existing framework.
Still, it’s not a guaranteed plan. EA tried this approach withDead Space (2023), producing a faithful remake with a familiar blueprint as a low-risk, high-yield investment. Despitecritical acclaimandstrong initial sales,Dead Space (2023)allegedly sold below EA’s expectations.
Dead Spaceis not a small IP either, spanning multiple games, animated movies, and comics at the height of its popularity. If EA truly hasno current plans to continue with the seriesat this time, that bodes ill for the industry perception of a successful horror franchise in general.
Microsoft’s shuttering of Tango Gameworks reinforces this notion. Tango held a strongly established survival horror IP in their repertoire withThe Evil Withinbut evidently showed no interest in capitalizing on the property.
The dark age of horror? Not quite.
Does this leave us in a dismal future where onlyResident Evilreigns supreme? There may be another stretch of time with very little competition in the big-budget horror space while publishers seek out new strategies for reproducingResident Evil‘s success.
Instead, the future of horror appears to again be smaller publishers and developers. Newcomers Blumhouse Games – a games publishing branch of Blumhouse Productionsformed in 2023–took to the stage at 2024’s Summer Game Festto unveil alineup of six independent horror titlesnow being funded under their label.
Meanwhile, Supermassive Games has crafted numerous narrative choice-driven horror games with multiple different publishing partners, ranging from bigger budget efforts likeUntil DawnandThe Quarry, to their collection of shorter productions withThe Dark Pictures Anthology. They’ve alsoinherited theLittle Nightmaresseriesafter original creatorsTarsier Studios ceased working on the property.
EvenFatal Framehas beensustaining itself with remastered portsof previous entries and has a newfeature film on the way.
Most interesting of all is Konami’s reinvigorated approach withSilent Hill. The publisher hosted aSilent Hill Transmission video broadcast in 2022 that manifested multiple new games and a feature film after a decade-long inactivity.
Konami has cast a wide net in an attempt to recapture the market, aiming to make a splash in the high-budget horror space with their remake ofSilent Hill 2 (2024)and an original title withSilent Hill: ƒ. It’s also testing smaller markets with experimental projects likeSilent Hill: TownfallandSilent Hill: Ascension, as well as the free downloadable titleSilent Hill: The Short Messagethat wasreleased in early 2024.
If there exists any frontrunner with a chance to compete for commercial viability in the AAA horror space, it would likely beSilent Hill.A lot is at stake for the franchise this fallwith therelease ofSilent Hill 2 (2024)in Octoberand a new film,Return to Silent Hill, the stage is now set to see if Konami’s fan-favorite horror series can secure a sustainable future.
As publishers struggle, players still profit
In reality, the main takeaway here is that regardless of whether publishers can financially endure the big-budget horror space, the creatives behind these projects will continue to find ways to bring their ideas to life. There is a swath of talent within the indie horror market crafting innovative and evocative new ways to terrify and enrapture players.
Amnesia: The Bunkeris arguably among the best horror games of 2023, whileCrow Countryswiftly became a breakout hitin early 2024. The rest of the year is primed to impress with up-and-comers likeHollowbody,Post Trauma, andFear the Spotlight, among others.
It’s also worth reiterating thatResident Evilis not going anywhere anytime soon, either, providing players with a near-annual fix for big-budget horror. So long as trailblazers exist to set the benchmark, it is only a matter of time before we see developers take another crack at producing intricate, large-scale horror games.
