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Update, July 26: IllFonic has now released a statement, making it very clear that Friday the 13th has not been ‘abandoned’. Dead Alliance began development before F13, and the small team on it remained there, so not resources have been moved around.
The statement reads, in full:
‘I wanted to address the concerns that IllFonic has abandoned Friday the 13th: The Game for Dead Alliance. This is 100% not true. Most major and independent studios have multiple teams working on multiple projects at the same time. This is critical for the survival of the studio, especially with the ups and downs with the game industry. Dead Alliance was started way before Friday the 13th: The Game. It was a co-development by Psyop Games and IllFonic then titled Moving Hazard. Psyop Games released Moving Hazard to Steam Early Access well over a year ago and it gained interest from Maximum Games for a console port. We’ve had a team who remained working on what turned into Dead Alliance for consoles that has always been separate from the Friday the 13th: The Game team. IllFonic still remains a small studio to this day but we are growing.
With the recent success of Friday the 13th: The Game we have been increasing our staff on the title. We originally had about 20 internal team members working on Friday the 13th: The Game and are now up to about 30 internal team members. We also have opened a second office that sole purpose is to support development of Friday the 13th: The Game. In addition we are continuing to staff up more team members for continued support of the game. So we assure you, continued support for Friday the 13th: The Game has not been abandoned, in fact, it’s quite the opposite.’
Fair enough. Some fans are still frustrated by the Xbox One patch’s lack of appearance, and the slow down in communication from IllFonic, but others are happy to support the game and wait for the fixes.
Original story, July 25: Friday the 13th released in May to a mixed response: fans liked the concept, but were angry at the server issues and bugs they encountered. Now, a user called weirdkid5 has pointed out on the Friday the 13th forums that Dead Alliance, a zombie game launching on August 29, was developed partially by the F13 devs IllFonic. And the fans aren’t happy.
The perception is that while IllFonic has said the focus is on Friday the 13th as recently as April, the developers are in fact neglecting it and diverting energy to other projects like Dead Alliance — despite Friday the 13th still needing performance fixes. The Xbox version is, in fact still awaiting a major patch, which is apparently still being worked on.
We have been a bit quiet, but work remains on the Xbox One version, added content and we are at #SDCC2017 this year. Lots going on!
— Friday the 13th Game (@Friday13thGame) July 19, 2017
Dead Alliance was announced last month, but because IllFonic is one of a few studios involved it seems to have largely escaped the Friday the 13th community’s notice, until now. Check out the thread for four pages (and rising) of discussion. Some call for ‘patience and understanding’, but are currently in the minority. It’s hard to blame the community for their frustration, really.
