Could Alone In The Dark Be Making A Comeback?

I’m so fascinated by The Snitch.

You’ve probably heard of this account by now: another anonymous Twitter leaker supposedly blessed with clairvoyant knowledge of imminent games industry announcements. What sets The Snitch apart from many similar accounts isn’t just the accuracy of their predictions, it’s the regularity of them too. The last time The Snitch tweeted was back in early July, predicting the arrival of World Cup modes in FIFA 23, which was confirmed later in the month. The account then went dark for over a month, returning only yesterday with the below:

Being afraid of the dark is what keeps most of us alive.

— The Snitch (@insider_wtf) August 9, 2022

That’s a line from the 2005 film Alone in the Dark, based on the classic series of survival horror video games. Popular in the early ’90s and cranking out four games in as many years, Alone in the Dark floundered in the 2000s. The franchise has been dormant since an uneven 2008 reboot and 2015’s abortive Alone in the Dark: Illumination MMO. Though the 2008 reboot had some interesting ideas, Remedy’s Alan Wake came along two years later and blew it out of the water.

Previous rights holders Atari SA sold the franchise to THQ Nordic, already part of Embracer Group, in 2018. Given Capcom’s recent successes in remaking its Resident Evil games, it makes sense that THQ would want to resurrect its recognisable survival horror franchise too. It’s been five years since THQ acquired the IP, so provided a new game went into production shortly after, now would be about the time to expect an announcement. You don’t acquire a dormant license unless you expect a reasonably quick return on investment. The timeline matches up.

For now, of course, The Snitch’s tweet is all we have to go on, so take it will a big old grain of salt. Could a new Alone in the Dark game be announced at Gamescom later this month? For now, we wait and see.

Did you ever play Alone in the Dark back in the day? Sound off in the comments. Did you like the series, or did it pass you by? Did you forget it even existed? Let me know.