Until Dawn Remake

[River Fenwick]

As of last month, the date for the Until Dawn remake has been announced, set to be released on October 4, 2024!

For those who didn't know, Until Dawn was a horror game released on August 25, 2015. It was considered a game with great graphics at the time, and it helped nurture the unique style of 'choices matter' in gameplay, with the game using a butterfly effect system.

With the game being loved and held in high regard at the time and possibly even today, it makes sense that they've decided to remake it with updated graphics, rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5.

However, it seems as if something has gone amiss. The developer company, Ballistic Moon, has recently laid off several staff members despite the release date being set to be a little over a month away. In the past, when this happened to companies, games ended up being delayed or even called off completely.

What do you think will happen with this remake? Are you hoping that it will still be released in time? As a horror game, should they still aim to release it in October to have a better chance at sales despite the circumstances?

[Anne-Marie Gagne]

I didn't even know that there was an Until Dawn remake! I actually bought the game in 2015 after seeing a couple of my favorite content creators on YouTube at the time play the game. I really enjoyed watching them play and the game itself looked really fun to play (which, funnily enough, I never actually played but I did watch my youngest brother play it and then let one of my nieces borrow it to play since she enjoyed watching people play it too).

Unfortunately I do worry about the life of the game with the news that Ballistic Moon laying off people. That's never a good sign especially with a new game being released. I fear that if the game does get released, the studio will shut down shortly after OR the studio will shut down before the game is released and causing it to not be released.

Though I also worry about them rushing the game and then releasing a subpar product because they're in crunch mode to get it released on time and thus overworking their devs. Crunch is honestly what I feel kills a game more than even lay offs in a studio so close to a game's release. I'd much prefer a studio to push back a release date than participate in crunch time.

Overall, I hope my worries about the studio and the game are unfounded and that the game comes out when its ready to be released and is a very good remake of the original game.