What you need to know
- Until Dawn is a PlayStation 4 exclusive developed by Supermassive Games and published by PlayStation Studios.
- During the January 2024 State of Play presentation, we learned that Until Dawn is being rebuilt for PlayStation 5 and Windows PC.
- This rebuilding is being built by Ballistic Moon, an independent studio located in the U.K.
- This new version of Until Dawn doesn't have a release date, but is currently slated to arrive later in 2024.
Horror fans will be heading back to Blackwood Mountain later this year.
During PlayStation's January 2024 State of Play presentation on Wednesday, we learned that Supermassive Games' horror title Until Dawn is being rebuilt for PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. This new version of the game is being built by U.K. studio Ballistic Moon. There's no release date, but it's slated to drop sometime later in 2024. You can check out the announcement trailer below:
How is Until Dawn changing on PlayStation 5 and PC?
The original Until Dawn is a PlayStation 4 exclusive developed by Supermassive Games and published by PlayStation Studios. First launching back in August 2015, this narrative-focused horror title pulled in an all-star cast including Hayden Panettiere, Rami Malek, and Peter Stormare. Per materials leaked during the Insomniac Games hack, Until Dawn sold over 4 million copies as of 2021.
The team at Ballistic Moon is also expanding the game's scope with new locations to explore, as well as "unexplored emotional parts of the story," and a third-person camera option.
Per PlayStation Blog, Ballistic Moon is rebuilding Until Dawn using Unreal Engine 5, a shift away from the Decima engine used in the original game. Until Dawn will also have a new soundtrack on PlayStation 5 and PC, with the new score being composed by Mark Korven, who has contributed to films like The Witch and The Lighthouse. It's unclear if the original score from Jason Graves will also be included.
Until Dawn joins the list of PlayStation games on PC
This remake of Until Dawn expands the list of PlayStation Studios games on Windows PC, a list that grows slowly but steadily every year. Outside of Until Dawn, Guerrilla Games' Horizon Forbidden West is coming to PC on March 21, 2024, bringing Aloy's second adventure to a new platform.
Analysis: A cool game, a quasi-remake?
I've played Until Dawn multiple times, and it's one of my favorite PS4 games from last generation alongside Bloodborne and The Order 1886. I'm down for an enhanced version of an excellent horror game, but there's some asterisk marks attached here.
Choosing to use Unreal Engine 5 and expand on the story is a bit strange, and it seems like this version of Until Dawn will occupy a weird place between being a remake and a remaster. It's not the route I expected when rumors of an Until Dawn port were first circulating, but I'm cautiously optimistic about some of the changes.
Hopefully we won't be waiting too long to learn more about this version of the game. I'm expecting an October release date to coincide with Halloween, but we'll see!
