Due to current legal battles over the ownership rights of the franchise, there aren’t going to be any Friday the 13th content updates. The game has ceased any continued development, and its current state is the most we’re ever going to get again outside of console dedicated servers, bug fixes, and maintenance.
There’s currently a big court dispute surrounding the rights to the Friday the 13th franchise. Victor Miller, the screenwriter for the original Friday the 13th movie, is attempting to reclaim ownership of the IP by citing the United States’ 1976 Copyright Act. The amendment that came in 1976 allowed authors or their heirs to terminate a grant of rights and reclaim ownership. The franchise is currently owned by Horror Inc and Manny Company, the successor to the original company that produced Friday the 13th. Because of the court proceedings, any development or production of any Friday the 13th property has been frozen.
“Development on games can’t just pause indefinitely and pick back up again; it doesn’t work that way,” Said Wes, an administrator on the forums for the Friday the 13th game. “Especially when you have no idea when that future date will occur. We can’t keep building content that may never see the light of day. That’s bad business … We can’t add any content, whatsoever. Nada. Not even a new tree or rock. We can only focus on console dedicated servers, bug fixes, and maintenance.”
Friday the 13th received mixed reviews critically, but it has a cult following. Many fans are deeply upset that there won’t be any more Friday the 13th content updates. Forum user Truth said, “It’s not what we wanted to hear, but we needed to know. Tough call, but it is what it is…” The game will still be online, and as has been said there’ll still be bug fixes, so if you still want to give the game a go you can grab it on Steam at 50% off for the Summer sale.
