A PlayStation Store listing for Alone In The Dark 2 was spotted by Gematsu on tracking website PSDeals, claiming that the classic horror title will be available to play on PS5 and PS4.
There’s even a suggested release date that lists this coming Thursday, November 7, 2024 – though as Gematsu points out, that date is not exactly set in stone.
It’s nothing like the Alone In The Dark reboot attempt from Pieces Interactive, the studio that publisher Embracer Group shut down after Alone In The Dark missed Embracer’s sales expectation.
This is just an emulated version of the original game, made to be playable on modern PlayStation consoles. The full title even seems to be “Alone In The Dark 2 (1996) – Emulation” the way it’s formatted on PSDeals.
Embracer Group is still publishing this version under its subsidiary THQ Nordic, which also published the large-scale remake/reboot from this past March.
After Embracer earned a reputation for being one of the biggest contributors to the mass layoffs the games industry has been experiencing in the last few years, this can’t help but feel like its leadership trying to get the most bang for their buck out of any IP the company has under its umbrella.
It’s much, much cheaper to just emulate older titles than it is to go through everything Pieces Interactive did to remake a beloved classic.
But that lack of an investment doesn’t guarantee this will be a win for Embracer – retro game fans despise poorly emulated official re-releases, and they’re usually very loud about their displeasure.
If it’s a low-effort release with issues that make what should be the ‘new-best-way-to-play’ a decades old game actively worse than playing the original, that’ll be another indicator that this release is a just cash-grab decisions from executives who’ve already demonstrated they truly do not care about anything beyond what it takes to stuff their own pockets as much as possible.
Of course that last part could be true, and it could still be a good version of the game to play. So we can hope for that, at least.