Blumhouse Productionsknown for horror franchises Paranormal Activity, American Nightmare, Happy Birthdead or Insidiouslaunches into video game publishing. During the Summer Game Fest Live 2024, Blumhouse Games teased its first productions, including the Project Cthe next game from Sam Barlow and Brandon Cronenberg.
Titles that are obviously expected by all horror video game fans, but since it is a brand new label, players remain on the defensive. Louise Blain, creative director of Blumhouse Gamesrecently spoke with Variety to reveal The strategy of this new publishing studio is rather interesting :
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We'll exist in the horror space. I think what's amazing about horror is that it's so vast. There's so many different subgenres, like the supernatural. And with Blumhouse shows or movies, they run the gamut of horror and that's really what we want to embrace: horror in all its forms. And that means that what you're looking at on the list is twisted, weird games, and then a pixelated, cozy farming game with a murder. The scope is very, very large, as long as you're playing in the giant format that is horror and the unknown, it can feel like scares, it can feel like exploring a dark corner in a haunted house, or why are farmers dying in this cute town? The fact is, you might actually enjoy a horror game, but you just didn't know which one you wanted to play.
Just like other subgenres of cinema, horror is here a context, a framework for games with experiences and gameplay very different. Enough to appeal to a wide audience, the objective of Blumhouse Games is probably to offer a variety of titles, to see the feedback from players and what recipes work best. But the publisher is not there to rip off fans, its economic model will be very classic, with affordable gamesas Zach Wood explains, presents Blumhouse Games :
We don't do any kind of monetization in the game. We're starting with small single-player experiences with premium pricing. But due to the scope of the game, the price will be somewhere between $10 and $30.
Another topic that horror fans are wondering about: Why Blumhouse Games did not draw from the franchise catalog of Blumhouse Productions to reach an even wider audience? After all, an action and survival video game American Nightmareor a pure survival horror in a haunted house with cameras at the Paranomal Activity would have been ideal to get the label talked about. Well Zach Wood has a different approach, although he's not closing any doors:
We're interested in new ideas in horror. And that's not to say we won't make games based on existing Blumhouse franchises in the future – we'd love to. But a lot of it comes down to timing. It's the right idea, it's the right creative team. And those things have to align in the right way, because it's important for us to be true to the license and make great games that fans expect. It's a lot of work, so we want to be very careful about that.
For now, the catalog of games published by Blumhouse Games comprises six titles, namely Project C, Grave Seasons, The Simulation, Crisol: Theater of Idols, Sleep Awake And Fear the Spotlightwhich will be released first, sometime in 2024. A retro horror game in homage to the survival from the 90s with two young girls infiltrating their school to do spiritualism which will open the ball in the coming months.
Games at gameplay and varied artistic direction, reassuring economic model, true love for the horror genre, Blumhouse Games scores good points with fanseven before the release of its first titles as a publisher. It remains to be seen whether these productions will be of quality. While waiting to discover these games, you can find the box set Blumhouse Horror Collection with American Nightmare, Ouija, A neighbor too perfect, Unfriended, The Visit, Split, Get Out, Happy Birthdead, Truth or Dare And My has €24.95 on Amazon.
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