Not every asymmetrical horror game can survive on the market, as yet another Dead by Daylight competitor has shown. This newest addition to the genre has died only 1 year after its release. Why is Evil Dead: The Game practically extinct, even though it's based on a famous franchise?
It seems as though yet another asymmetrical horror game has tried to climb the ranks only to... fall down onto rock bottom. As sad as it is, this genre really hasn't been bearing much fruit in the past years, besides Dead by Daylight of course and perhaps The Texas Chain Saw Massacre recently.
So, while Evil Dead: The Game was released in May 2022, as of now in September 2023, Evil Dead's peak amount of players at the same time were... 43. Yikes.
I don't know about you, but somehow this game just completely passed me by, and I love Dead by Daylight. Normally, the Dead by Daylight community picks up on other asymmetrical horror games, especially if it's another 4v1 game like Evil Dead: The Game is. For some reason, that never happened here though.
What Happened To Evil Dead: The Game?
Evil Dead promised to be a successful addition to the asymmetrical horror game family, focusing on the characters from the Evil Dead franchise and thus bringing famous characters from the movies, such as Ash Williams, to life.
With different survivor classes and demon types to pick from, you would hope that players would stay interested enough in the game for it to become a staple in the genre, right?
According to their "Game of the Year Edition" trailer, Evil Dead has been purchased by over 3 million players. You'd think that with that amount of players, the game would somehow manage to stay afloat.
Well, at least according to steamcharts, since April 2023, Evil Dead's peak amount of players were a whopping... 568 players at once. Compare that to the supposed 3 million players from the trailer, and something just doesn't add up.
Apparently, when Evil Dead was released, a lot of people pre-ordered the game, but were then seemingly left disappointed when they actually tested the game out for themselves.
The fact that the game originally came out as an Epic Games exclusive, and was only made available for purchase on Steam in 2023, probably didn't help to boost its popularity.
Ultimately, the lack of a proper player base, as well as the financial troubles of Saber Interactive's parent company, Embracer Group, has led the developers of Evil Dead: The Game to release a statement regarding the game's future:
— EvilDeadTheGame (@EvilDeadTheGame) September 19, 2023
Saber Interactive has revealed that they will no longer release any new content for their game, but they plan to keep the servers up for the "foreseeable future". Don't know what you think, but that doesn't sound like this game is going to be playable for very long.
In addition to the update about their servers, the developers also informed their fans that Evil Dead will not be released for the Nintendo Switch, as they had originally planned.
Someone needs to bear the bad news to their web designer about that new info, though. The official Evil Dead website still says "coming soon to Nintendo Switch". Hope no one gets their hopes up because of that.
Let's just hope that this trend doesn't continue in the future, and maybe we'll see a new asymmetrical horror game garner more success, just like Dead by Daylight.