Friday the 13th is Getting a New Game — And It Doesn’t Need Dead by Daylight’s Help

Jason Voorhees is officially making a comeback. Horror Inc. just confirmed at San Diego Comic-Con 2025 that a brand-new Friday the 13th game is in development, alongside a new sequel movie. Robert Barsamian, EVP at Horror Inc., shared during the SDCC panel that both projects are currently top priorities. They're not ready to go public with their development partners yet, but the game and film are deep in the works.

This marks the third attempt to get a Friday the 13th game right. And while fans should be excited, the reality is that the series has a messy history in gaming. It’s not just bad luck — it’s legal trouble, licensing collapses, and a weird curse that seems to follow Jason’s digital appearances.

The last major title, Friday the 13th: The Game by Gun Media, launched in 2017 and was an immediate hit. But its success didn’t last. Less than a year after launch, everything started falling apart. A rights battle between original franchise creator Victor Miller and director Sean S. Cunningham forced Gun to cancel all DLC plans. By the time Miller won the dispute in 2018, the game was already on life support. Dedicated servers were shut down in 2020, and in 2023, it was pulled from sale entirely.

That wasn’t the only failure. Friday the 13th: Killer Puzzle, a mobile puzzler from Blue Wizard Digital, was delisted for similar licensing reasons. Even MultiVersus never got to feature Jason before its own shutdown. For a character who’s supposedly unstoppable, Jason sure gets taken offline a lot.

So here we are again, with a third shot at making Jason work in games. The question is: what kind of game should it be? The word “sequel” has fans guessing it might be another multiplayer horror title, something like Dead by Daylight. It would make sense — Friday the 13th: The Game did well while it lasted, and the asymmetric multiplayer genre is still going strong. But that move would be a mistake.

Because right now, Dead by Daylight dominates the asymmetric horror space. The game from Behaviour Interactive is packed with licensed characters, ongoing updates, comics, even a movie. It’s got The Walking Dead now. It’s got The Rift battle pass system. It’s got years of community events, seasonal modes, and a loyal player base. It owns that market.

And other horror IPs that try to copy the formula just don’t survive long. Just look at Killer Klowns from Outer Space, a similar multiplayer title that launched in 2024. It faded quickly, and it’s not even close to Dead by Daylight in terms of numbers or staying power. If Friday the 13th tries to compete on that turf again, it’s setting itself up to get buried.

Instead, there’s a better path — and it’s already being tested by other classic horror franchises. The upcoming Hellraiser game is going single-player. That’s the direction Friday the 13th should take.

Jason Voorhees works better when he’s not sharing the stage. He’s scary because he’s quiet, relentless, and always coming for you. A single-player experience could actually capture the tension and dread that fans associate with the movies. Friday the 13th: The Game was fun, sure. But it leaned into meme culture and slapstick chaos. What if a new game dropped that entirely and just made Jason terrifying again?

It could work like Alien Isolation, where you’re constantly running, hiding, and trying to survive alone. Jason could be the unstoppable force — not a player-controlled character but a true horror presence. Imagine something like Rule of Rose, or the atmosphere of early Silent Hill, but with Jason always just a few steps behind. That’s the kind of game where the fear sticks with you.

Jason doesn’t need Crystal Lake every time, either. He’s been to New York. He’s been to space. The franchise has shown over the years that it isn’t tied down by logic, and that’s a strength. A single-player game could use multiple locations, time periods, or even dive into Jason’s mythology. Go darker, more psychological. Make it a survival experience that doesn’t rely on multiplayer gimmicks or a rotating roster of killers. Just Jason, the player, and a whole lot of blood.

Because when you’re playing with friends in a multiplayer match, the fear fades. You start to laugh. You share memes. You joke about dying first. But when you’re alone with Jason, and you hear footsteps in the dark — that’s when Friday the 13th is at its best.

So here’s the move: drop the multiplayer idea, go full single-player, and actually use Jason as a proper horror icon again. No battle passes. No matchmaking. Just one-on-one terror, the way horror games used to do it.

This is the moment for the Friday the 13th franchise to stop chasing what everyone else is doing and lean into what made Jason legendary in the first place. Slash the noise. Bring the horror back.