Netflix’s next horror title was made by Supermassive Games, which recently announced planned layoffs.
Netflix’s next horror title was made by Supermassive Games, which recently announced planned layoffs.
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Netflix just announced The Conjuring: Unspoken, a new horror game set in The Conjuring universe that you can play with your phone as a controller, and it will launch exclusively on the service on October 13th.
The Conjuring: Unspoken is an interactive paranormal investigation you can play from your couch. It’s a narrative experience, so you shape the story by choosing different dialogue options as you play. Using your phone, you scour the historic Red Lion Inn (reportedly a haunted place in England) for clues about things that go bump in the night.
As demonologist Francesca Noakes, you scan the area around you with an electromagnetic field reader, an infrared camera, and a spirit box — ghost-hunter tools of the trade for finding apparitions in the wild. The big screen shows your virtual environment, while the one in your hand serves as the controller for these tools. The infrared camera, for instance, allows you to see a thermal overlay of the environment while you’re looking for cold spots that indicate an otherworldly presence.
Netflix says you need to have seen the Conjuring movies to play the game, but adds that there are “a few familiar faces that pop up in the game, and knowing the backstory adds to the overall impact.”
The Conjuring: Unspoken was developed by Supermassive Games, known for other narrative horror games like The Quarry and Until Dawn. The studio announced in August that it planned to lay off up to 75 staffers, and Supermassive’s former IT and facilities director said yesterday on LinkedIn that “more than 70” people would be leaving the studio.
The new game follows the June launch of another horror title, Unhinged. That game was developed by Night School, the studio behind Oxenfree, but Netflix shut down the studio in August.
