Update: During Sony’s State of Play stream on Wednesday, a new trailer confirmed a “rebuilt and enhanced” version of Until Dawn is coming to PS5 and PC in 2024.
Original story below.
As Sony continues to loosen its grip on its big library of exclusives, it looks like a classic PS4 horror game might be making its way over to PC: Until Dawn. Supermassive’s cinematic slasher romp launched on the console back in 2015, and its success spawned a whole bunch of similarly structured games from the studio, like the Dark Pictures Anthology and The Quarry.
No official announcement has been made yet, but Dealabs (via IGN) reports that the port has been in development for at least a year, and will be announced within the next couple of weeks.
The timing makes a lot of sense. A week ago, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that an Until Dawn movie adaptation was in the works from Shazam! Director David F. Sandberg and horror screenwriter Gary Dauberman, whose spooky credits include It and Annabelle. Given that it’s been almost nine years since the launch of the game, and the absence of any sequels, re-releasing it on PC (and PS5) would be a smart move to drum up some more attention.
For the uninitiated: Until Dawn is structured like a slasher flick, where a group of friends gather in a lodge a year after two of their friends went missing during a previous party. Players get to control each member of the friend group at different stages as the gathering becomes a bloody nightmare, making choices that shape the story and determine who lives and who dies. From what I can recall from my playthrough, nearly everyone got a grisly end.
It’s QTE-heavy, but Supermassive had a lot of fun with them, including sequences where you have to hold the controller as still as possible so you don’t give away your hiding spot, which is harder than you might think when you’re absolutely bricking it.
Right now it’s not clear what will be changed for the port. A visual upgrade seems like a reasonable prediction, though the original game still looks great. Performance is another area that could benefit from some improvements: there were a lot of frame rate fluctuations, which did get in the way a bit. Supermassive’s later games, which did come to PC, were much smoother experiences.
It seems unlikely, but what I’d really love to see is some proper co-op. Supermassive’s later stuff includes multiple modes, letting you play with two players simultaneously, as well as a pass-the-controller party mode. Until Dawn, however, is firmly singleplayer, though it’s possible to emulate the party mode by informally assigning your friends characters and giving them the controller when they become playable.
There’s no word on a release date yet, though this might be unveiled during the official announcement.
