The latest instalment in the Amnesia series is being delayed. And the new release date is very ambitious, but on second glance not so unwise.
The horror series Amnesia returns a bit to its roots. Amnesia: The Bunker takes us – and brace yourselves – into a bunker; and true veterans of the genre will be reminded of the first game by developer Frictional Games: Penumbra. Back then, we rummaged through a World War II bunker; in The Bunker, however, we descend into a nested lair in the skin of a French soldier during World War I, hunted by a murderous horror.
This descent, however, takes a little longer than originally planned. The Bunker was originally supposed to be released on May 23, but now the release is moving back two weeks, as the devs announced in a statement:
Here”s Fredrik with a message to you regarding Amnesia: The Bunker pic.twitter.com/8Ak7vPsrja
– frictionalgames (@frictionalgames) May 12, 2023
“We here at Frictional Games have worked very, very hard to make Amnesia: The Bunker the best game possible. I speak for the entire team when I say that we”re really proud of what we”ve accomplished here. Everything is finally coming together – we”ve got the gameplay, the art design, the animations, the atmosphere, the story … everything is coming together and we”re actually ready to launch the game to finally see your reactions.
Today I”m sitting here with bad news though, as we are forced to postpone Amnesia: The Bunker yet again, this time by two weeks. We won”t make it to 23 May, instead the game will be released on 6 June 2023.
We are currently in the certification process and have encountered several rare crash reasons that are very difficult to reproduce and thus fix. We just don”t make it in time “
Fredrik Olsson, Creative Lead Frictional Games
Why is this brave?
Creative Lead Fredrik Olsson emphasises that he does not want to expose his team to a crunch phase towards the release and therefore considers the renewed postponement necessary. Amnesia: The Bunker has already been pushed back a few times – originally the release was set for March 2023, then May 16, then May 23, and now June 6, 2023, with the atmosphere in the trailers already hitting the mark pretty hard:
6 June 2023 Many of you might have circled your calendars, because that”s also when a small, unassuming indie project called Diablo 4 will be released. While other publishers and developers avoid this release at all costs, so as not to release their games in the gigantic shadow of Diablo, Frictional Games is bravely taking a stand in the surf.
And that”s not a bad idea at all, because a) not every fan is going to play Diablo 4, so the stage is set aside from that, b) Amnesia serves a completely different niche and c) as we all know, the horror game sells more over time anyway (and via various Steam sales) instead of via a gigantic release day.
It will of course still be exciting to see how the latest Amnesia game with its semi-open world is placed in the horror landscape and in the gaming landscape in general. But we”ll see at the beginning of June.
