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A little bit of fear can make for a great game, which is why Resident Evil Requiem is one of our most anticipated games of 2026. However, there has been a growing trend of developers dipping into classic horror movie franchises so that nostalgia can help them find their player base. The latest of these is the multiplayer Halloween game that was announced at Gamescom 2025, and its entire existence is kind of baffling to me.

The concept of a Halloween game isn’t what I find baffling. A great horror game is a thing of beauty and Dead by Daylight has proven that the demand for the asymmetrical gameplay that IIIFonic, the developer of Halloween, Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, and 2017’s Friday the 13th: The Game, has made a habit of recreating is out there.

No, what I find strange is that we’re trying this formula yet again. Last year, Killer Klowns From Outer Space: The Game was released and has already had enough of a drop off in players that many are openly wondering if it will get shut down soon. 2023 was when The Texas Chainsaw Massacre game launched, and it has already had its support pulled by its publisher. While the servers are still up, it won’t get any new updates, which is the death knell for a live service game like this. The year before was Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, which is one of the few Dead by Daylight clones that has survived more than a year or two.

The market has been well and truly saturated before Michael Myers makes an intimidating, frightening entrance onto the scene. The involvement of Gun Interactive is another wrinkle that has me a little uneasy. They’re the publisher behind the aforementioned The Texas Chainsaw Massacre game that barely survived a year before it was announced that it wouldn’t be getting any more updates. Fans are understandably salty that they’ve pulled development this soon after the game’s launch.

But hey, the trailer for the Halloween game that was released at Gamescom looks good! It is spooky and tense, with a chilling voiceover that puts the game right in the heart of the original 1978 movie. John Carpenter is involved, as is the son of one of the original producers. This has the Halloween DNA all over it, right down to that iconic theme song that plays at the end, and that is cause for hope, right?

Here is the thing – asymmetrical games like this live and die by how much fun it is to play as the killer, and I’m not convinced that Michael Myers is the right killer for a game like this. He works in a movie because of the magic of editing. You don’t have to show him sprinting up to a victim – he can just appear behind them to put a knife through their heart. In a game, you’re more likely to see him running, which makes him somehow less intimidating. Part of what makes him so frightening is that he feels inevitable, like a force of nature that cannot be stopped. He will find you and he will kill you; making him run around the map takes that away and makes him seem more mundane.

Despite that concern, the gameplay described by the developers does sound fun. Victims have to run around town trying to warn their neighbors of the impending arrival of a homicidal madman while Michael Myers cuts phone lines or shuts off the power to disorient them and make them easier to kill. Setting the game in 1978 is a good move; no cell phones to call the police with here. I like all these things, so there is every possibility that I will be pleasantly surprised when Halloween releases in 2026.

The difficulty is that Halloween is releasing into a very crowded market of other asymmetrical horror games and follows a pair of games that have tried the same trick (adapting a beloved horror film into a 4v1 game) to limited success. The fact that we’re trying a third time is wild to me. I wish the developers all the best, but this one seems like a stab in the dark.

The gaming industry has come a long way since Pong blew all our minds in the 70s. We've got everything you need to know about the next big thing in games. Of course, Grand Theft Auto VI is going to be the big game of 2026, but there are plenty of other games coming out between now and then. Here is our starter guide for every gamer:

• All upcoming games in 2025 and beyond
• Gamify My Life, our weekly gaming column designed
• Popverse Picks: The best Assassin's Creed protagonists
• How to play every GTA game in order
• Why the GTA 6 budget isn't as crazy as you think
• The Magic: The Gathering x Spider-Man crossover set wouldn't exist without the Spider-Verse

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