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Friday the 13th: The Game continues to be a legal nightmare for anyone involved. The team behind the Resurrected mod announced that the project's future is up in the air after receiving a copyright infringement claim.
Announced on the official Friday the 13th: Resurrected Discord and X/Twitter, the team behind the project announced it received a cease and desist letter from an attorney representing Horror, Inc., which owns the rights to the Friday the 13th film franchise. The cease and desist letter, which is attached to the post below, mentions that the fan mod is an "unauthorized use" of the IP, describing it as an "unlicensed, knockoff Friday the 13th video game."
As you may be aware, we have received a cease and desist from @joshgeller2 who works for @GreenbergGluske and is Horror Inc's legal representative. With that, the project is most likely over but we do plan to work on other projects. We are still waiting for response from some… pic.twitter.com/Uk2QORRRvg
— Resurrected (@GameResurrected) April 8, 2024In the post, the team behind Friday the 13th: Resurrected states the project is has been canceled in response to the letter. They plan to pursue work on another project. The team notes that it's "still waiting for response from some people we have contacted," but is currently working on erasing all of the content behind the project, including the official X/Twitter account and the recently launched website.
"It's a shame that someone wants to fight against a fan-made project with no profit made," the team behind the project wrote. "It wasn't our intention to 'hurt the brand' as Horror Inc. claims we did."
Friday the 13th: Resurrected's development team initially planned to announce a release date next Monday, April 15. The project was designed as a free mod based on the 2017 horror game. The mod would have been free to own and include dedicated multiplayer services and fan-made content, including new characters and skins.
The fan project aimed to revive the horror game after its publisher, Gun Interactive, announced it was delisting at the end of 2023. While the game remains playable for those who bought it before its delisting, Gun Interactive plans to shut down the servers altogether on December 31, 2024. Before its delisting, Gun Interactive was forced to halt development of the new game roughly two years after its release; among the canceled content planned for Friday the 13th, The Game included a werewolf mode, with gameplay similar to Fortnite's Imposters mode or most notably, Inner Sloth's social deduction game Among Us.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
