A year after his last solo foray into gaming was cut shockingly short by rights issues and sunsetting servers, horror icon Jason Vorhees is getting another chance to bring his murderous rampages to consoles and PC.Horror Inc., the company behind the newly launched “Jason Universe,” announced that a new Friday the 13th video game is in the works. Horror Inc. Vice President Robbie Barsamian spilled his guts on the project over the weekend at San Diego Comic Con, as first reported by horror website Bloody Disgusting. The game is being produced alongside a new film project, and a so-called “short-vignette” releasing next month that will kick off this new era for the hockey mask-wearing slashing machine.“I can tell you that a new sequel movie and a new sequel game are at the top of our list. It’s where most of our energy’s going right now. And I can tell you finally we’re in a position to deliver on that,” Barsamian said. “While we’re not officially announcing with our partners today, both are coming. They’re both in the works and they’re both coming.”Jason fans will be able to intereact with the Crystal Lake legend in some capacity down the line. | Horror Inc.Horror Inc. first announced its interest in transforming the dormant Friday the 13th franchise into a multimedia powerhouse in May 2024. Reminding fans that it plans to follow through on that promise is a reassuring update for fans who still feel burned by the sudden demise of 2017’s sleeper hit, Friday the 13th: The Game. The now-defunct asymmetric multiplayer game tasked seven teen survivors stranded near Crystal Lake with escaping a near-invincible Jason. It was a great game, especially with friends. While it never reached the popularity of Dead By Daylight (which released around the same time), Friday the 13th: The Game was more of a loving send-up of Jason Voorhees in particular. It included dozens of neat references to the films and their complex continuity, game mechanics that felt true to its star antagonists, and unlockable skins that represented every incarnation of the character. Unfortunately, for four years, the game wasn’t updated, as an ongoing legal dispute over the rights to the Friday the 13th franchise halted all productions featuring the character. Developer IllFonic had significant plans for future updates after its successful launch, but all of those updates had been put on hold indefinitely until the dispute was settled in court. The pause resulted in layoffs at the studio and the game’s slow demise. In 2023, the multiplayer-only game was delisted from all digital platforms. In 2024, its servers were shut down for good.It’s a tragic story that has become all too common in the gaming space, as video game preservation still lags woefully behind that of film and music. Friday the 13th: The Game was especially harsh since Illfonic’s momentum was stopped at no fault of its own.It’s likely Horror Inc. understands how much of a missed opportunity Friday the 13th: The Game was, as Barsamian was an executive producer on the game. While a revival of Illfonic’s original premise would be awesome, there is also a big opportunity to reinvent what a canonical game starring Jason could be. A collaboration with a studio like Bloober Team, which has done exceptionally well with 2024’s Silent Hill 2 remake, could be an interesting twist on a survival horror game starring the genre’s most famous murderer.For players looking for their fix of iconic horror characters, Michael Myers and Evil Dead’s Ash Williams starred in their own colorful 2D sidescrollers just last year. Developer Boss Team built the two games in tandem, and lets players insert Myers into the world of Evil Dead and vice-versa if they own both titles.