'Friday the 13th: The Game' misses 2016 release date in favor of bonus content

The game was crowdfunded on Kickstarter in 2015, where it accomplished the task of meeting its $700,000 goal, but it fell short of the $1.625 million stretch goal that would have added a fully fledged single-player campaign. However, Gun Media has now secured outside funding that will facilitate the development of a single-player mode.

“After securing funding, we’re here to tell you that it is a reality and we’re making this game even bigger,” wrote studio head Wes Keltner in an update to Kickstarter backers. “It sucks that there’s a delay, but the wait won’t be too long and it’s going to offer more for fans in the long-run!”

A beta release of Friday the 13th: The Game is still planned for fall 2016, at which point Kickstarter backers and anyone that pre-ordered will receive four bonus keys to allow their friends to join the fray. A multiplayer release will follow in spring 2017, which will add the Packanack Lodge map and Tommy Jarvis as a playable character, before the single-player mode and bots for offline play are released in summer 2017.

It’s easy to see how more time in development will improve the finished product, but there’s a risk that Friday the 13th: The Game might be outpaced by a similar asymmetrical multiplayer title as a result of the delay. Dead by Daylight is a conceptually similar game that released in June 2015, and this week it was announced that Michael Myers of the Halloween franchise will be offered as a DLC character at the end of the month.

Before Friday the 13th: The Game releases, Dead by Daylight may be able to corner the market for a horror-inspired multiplayer experience. The team at Gun Media faces the challenge of setting the game apart from its competition over the next several months — but the addition of a single-player mode would seem to be a winning strategy.