If you were sleeping on Kinetic Games’ cooperative ghost-hunting game Phasmophobia, you’re weren’t alone. The game has become an overnight success for the developer, so much so that they’ve had to “reconsider” their original plans for the game’s future in Early Access.
IGN reached out to Kinetic Games and its sole developer, Dknighter, regarding Phasmophobia, which will now have its plans changed to remain in Early Access longer than what was originally planned. “I was originally planning the Early Access to be short”, explains Dknighter, “where I just add a few more maps, ghost types and equipment. However, due to the game’s popularity, everyone’s expectations are increased so I am going to have to reconsider my plans for the game’s future.”
While Dknighter didn’t elaborate on what those plans would be, the developer is looking to focus more on tweaking existing features at the moment, rather than add new ones. “At the moment my only focus is getting the major bugs fixed before I begin working on new content. These bug fixes would usually be sent out when they are ready but, due to me having to update a lot of the game’s code, a lot of new systems need testing, so the next update will be a big stability and bug fix update.”
In case you were wondering just how big of a surprise Phasmophobia has been, Dknighter put it this way: “I was planning for the server capacity hitting a maximum of 500 players on launch day and it to drop off from there, as well as only aiming to make enough money to keep making more games. Now the game has over 2 million sales, with a player peak of around 90k.”
The story for Phasmophobia has you and three other players are paranormal investigators. You must enter haunted locations filled with paranormal activity and gather as much evidence of the paranormal as you can. You will use your ghost hunting equipment to search for and record evidence of whatever ghost is haunting the location to sell onto a ghost removal team. You can choose to support your team by monitoring the location with CCTV cameras and motion sensors from the safety of the truck, or head inside and get your hands dirty with the ghostly activity that will get increasingly hostile as time goes on.
You can grab Phasmophobia on Steam.