Gun Media got burnt by the fiasco surrounding the license for Friday the 13th when it was involved in the 2017 game adaptation. But it has ensured the same issues will not be happening with its upcoming The Texas Chain Saw Massacre game.
PCGamesN spoke to Gun’s creative director Ronnie Hobbs recently and he assured them that the situation is very different for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
”The situation surrounding Friday the 13th was inherently more complicated than it is with Texas,” notes Hobbs. This is the biggest point, as the rights for Friday the 13th suddenly became embroiled in a tug of war between the original director Sean Cunningham and writer Victor Miller. That prevented the game from adding any new content, and ultimately saw it shut down its servers in 2020 as no resolution was in sight.
The Saw Is Family
So what’s the difference now? Hobbs lays it out, “With Texas, we are dealing directly with Kim Henkel, the sole owner of the IP. We’ve been working closely with him during the entire process not only from a creative standpoint, but also a legal one. We have been as diligent as possible during this entire experience to ensure things go smoothly.”
The relationship Gun has struck up with Henkel comes from a place of mutual respect, and was a deciding factor in what license Gun would tackle next.
“After the success of Friday the 13th, we had a lot of potential suitors contacting us about turning their IP into games. We spent quite a while sorting through and weighing our options before finally being introduced to Kim Henkel. Once we discovered that both sides had an immense interest in creating a game, we quickly knew Texas was going to be our next project.”
Early playtests of the game have proved promising. The shift in dynamic for asymmetrical multiplayer sees 3 members of the family against 4 survivors. Set up as a prequel to the 1974 movie of the same name, it features the same deranged family and locations, but with a fresh set of potential victims.
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre launches on PS4 and PS5 on August 18, 2023, for a reasonable $39.99.
