Highlights
- A cease-and-desist letter halts the release of Friday the 13th Resurrected.
- The fan-made game intended for Steam release has now been shelved.
- Legal woes over unauthorized use of Horror, Inc.’s IP rights have resulted in this cancellation of Friday the 13th Resurrected project.
A cease and desist letter for Friday the 13th Resurrected has been served to its developer, ending the campaign to bring the fan-made game to Steam. With Friday the 13th: The Game no longer available to download either, fans will need to continue getting their Jason Voorhees fix elsewhere.
Just one week after announcing Friday the 13th Resurrected coming to Steam, the game has now been shelved pending legal action from Horror, Inc., owner of the Friday the 13th IP. The unofficial, fan-made project was developed as a free-to-play game intended to officially release on April 15, 2024. Following the C&D from Horror, Inc.’s legal representation, all efforts are being put toward removing their content from any consumable material.
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As revealed in a tweet by the developer, Horror Inc.’s legal representatives from GreenbergGlusker order the cessation of production of Friday the 13th Resurrected, referred to as “Unlawful Game Content.” The basis for their claim calls out the “unauthorized use of Horror’s IP Rights to develop an unlicensed, knockoff game” in reference to the use of images, settings, and obviously the character of Jason Voorhees. This follows Friday the 13th: The Game being delisted in 2023 after similar legal trouble.
Friday The 13th Resurrected Has Been Canceled
The tweet maintains the developer’s position that its intentions were noble in developing Friday the 13th Resurrected. Unfortunately, use of all intellectual properties not in the public domain must be done with permission by their owner. In this case, Horror, Inc. After its release in 2017, Friday the 13th: The Game halted development of new content following lawsuits claiming ownership of the same content.
With this writing on the wall for some time, some developers took the hint. The use of Jason Voorhees, the setting of Camp Crystal Lake, and even the “ch-ch-ch-ah-ah-ah” sounds in Friday the 13th Resurrection could trigger fines of up to $150,000 each. Developers of other IPs like the Texas Chain Saw Massacre game are not challenged in this way.
Horror game developers like Behaviour Interactive have to reach a deal in order to put third-party IP content in their games. That’s why Jason is not yet in Dead by Daylight. To add insult to injury, removal of Friday the 13th: The Game plus the cancelation of Friday the 13th Resurrected leaves a completely empty void of any modern video game interpretation of Jason Voorhees.