The world of asymmetrical multiplayer games has seen a tremendous amount of growth over the last ten years or so. Some gamers may remember when “Evolve” tried to break into the scene as one of the first major titles, but flopped hard with an intensely aggressive DLC push. But the idea of a super powerful character battling against a team of weaker opponents found its way to other games and intellectual properties. Arguably, the one that did it the best was “Friday the 13th: The Game,” and it’s about to shut down for good.
In 2017, an online only multiplayer game was born that allowed one person to play as Jason Voorhees and take on a group of characters from across the “Friday the 13th” franchise. A skilled Jason player could decimate the competition, but a savvy band of teenagers could escape unharmed or beat Jason back with Tommy Jarvis and a sweater. But behind the scenes, another battle was being waged regarding rights issues and keeping the game’s very existence afloat. Ultimately, it was a battle that couldn’t be won.
Fans of the franchise probably know better than most that the series has been plagued with legal battles about copyright and ownership between screenwriter Victor Miller and director Sean S Cunningham. Cunningham and his company, Horror Inc. have effectively been in charge of “Friday the 13th” projects for years but Miller, who wrote the screenplay for the original film has filed a lawsuit that effectively stopped any projects from happening, including updates.
At first, these issues stopped elements of DLC from being produced but the game was still rich in content at that point. There was a variety of characters, both teens and forms of Jason that could be played and built up with different abilities. Eventually the lawsuit that Miller filed led to all updates stopping outside of general maintenance. It started getting worse once dedicated servers were shut down in November of 2020 but at least the title was still downloadable and playable at that point in time
Once 2023 came along, it truly was the end times. The game developers illfonic and publisher Gun Media announced that the rights to the property would expire at the close of 2023 and they had to delist the game from storefronts. However, the game would still be playable at that point in time. Once rights start expiring though, it’s not long before everything else goes by the wayside. That time is now.
December 31st, 2024 is the last day to play before the game shuts down for good.
It’s an incredibly sad occasion for fans. On a personal note, one of my best friends was a die-hard fan of the game and introduced me to it a few years ago. He showed me the ropes and though I was atrociously bad at the game, I had a fun time and a lot of good laughs. For those who were more dedicated to the title like he was, there was a lot of depth to the content; a great number of characters to work with and an ever-changing experience depending on how skilled your teammates were.
It’s another sad lesson in the fragility of online only content and rights negotiations. As long as something has an online component to it, it’s existence is ephemeral at best. Sure, you could purchase a physical copy of “Friday the 13th: The Game,” but the disc isn’t any good if it requires an internet connection to play. More than this, what can you do when the fate of the game itself is determined by factors like legal issues, that are beyond the scope of the player and the publisher? Say what you will about the NES version of Friday the 13th, but that will forever be playable in some form, even if it is a bit of a confusing mess.
It’s never easy to say goodbye to something you enjoy, and a lot of people enjoyed the survival horror of “Friday the 13th: The Game” for a good seven years. It’s not fair that we have to bid farewell but at least we had some murderous fun while we could. We tip our hockey masks to the people at illfonic and Gun Media for all their work. With any luck and good fortune, maybe we can see something like this happen again in the future and we can return again to Camp Crystal Lake.
