Until Dawn PlayStation 5 and PC remaster official, out this year
UPDATE: It's an Unreal Engine 5 remake, with a third-person camera, new score, and "more nuanced and emotional" story.
UPDATE 1/2/24: As part of its post-PlayStation State of Play extended coverage, Sony has shared more on developer Ballistic Moon's Unreal Engine 5 take on Until Dawn, and it seems we're looking at a full-on remake - significantly overhauling some of the original's fundamental mechanics - rather than a simpler remaster spruce-up.
As detailed on the PlayStation Blog, this new version of Until Dawn ditches the fixed camera angles of the original in favour of a new third-person perspective - a perhaps surprisingly change given the whole point of the original was to replicate the classic slasher movie experience, complete with the genre's familiar cinematic language, albeit with an interactive twist - and it doesn't sound like Ballistic Moon was content with the first game's hokey horror vibes either. This new version is aiming to be "more nuanced and emotional", with a "broader cinematic tonal colour palette" compared to the original's wintery blue hues.
As well as expanding the original narrative with "unexplored emotional parts", Ballistic Moon says it's adding new locations, enhancing old ones, introducing new interactions (including new "contextual character movement animation"), and new collectables. That's in addition to a radical sound overhaul - there's talk of a "completely new soundscape" and Ballistic Moon is jettisoning original composer Jason Graves' score in favour of new music from Mark Korven.
Whether this new PS5 and PC version of Until Dawn manages to retain the gleefully cheesy popcorn-munching delights of the original in its quest for more emotion and nuance remains to be seen, but Ballistic Moon says it'll be sharing more news on the project "later this year".
ORIGINAL STORY 31/1/24: Supermassive Games' hugely entertaining PS4 slasher horror Until Dawn is - as was widely reported prior today's PlayStation State of Play showcase - getting a PlayStation 5 and PC remaster, and it'll be launching later this year.
The original Until Dawn released for PlayStation 4 back in 2015, offering up an atmospheric, knowingly cheesy spin on the teen slasher genre whose branching narrative could be nudged in different directions depending on the choices players made - with their actions determining who lived and who died, even what sort of threat they might be facing.
Supermassive later returned to the well with its similarly styled Dark Pictures Anthology series, but Until Dawn is still regarded as highpoint for the studio, so it's nice to see it get a bit of a refresh - or "rebuilt and enhanced" as Sony is putting it - for a new generation of players.
Sony hasn't yet detailed the specific improvements coming in this new version of Until Dawn - which is being handled by Ballistic Moon - but hopefully it won't be long before we hear more.
Official confirmation Until Dawn is making its way to PlayStation 5 and PC follows word the game is joining the ever-growing list of first-party PlayStation titles getting the live-action movie treatment - with the writer and director of 2017 horror hit Annabelle: Creation having signed up to adapt Supermassive's horror game for the big screen.