Alone in The Dark Delayed Until January 2024

Delays certainly aren't unheard of in gaming these days, and Alone In The Dark is the most recent title to fall victim to them. THQ Nordic's Alone In The Dark reboot has been delayed until mid-January 2024, with developers citing a busy season as the reason for the wait in their Twitter post announcing the change. However, they promise that the delay will "ensure a breathtaking experience for everyone."

While it's unfortunate for those who are excited about the game that the wait will be a little longer than expected, Alone In The Dark will thankfully be released relatively soon, only a little under 3 months after its original release date. Alone In The Dark's original release date was 25 October 2023, while the game's new release date is 16 January 2024.

Horror games thrive on the eerie embrace of solitude, something that is impossible to achieve in a gaming month as busy as October.

To ensure a breathtaking experience for everyone, we have made the decision to move the release of #AloneInTheDark to January 16, 2024. pic.twitter.com/W5EgV4aTZc

— Alone in the Dark (@AITDGame) September 5, 2023

The reason for the delay likely owes to one word: competition. Major October releases include Alan Wake 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Sonic Superstars, Spider-Man 2, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and City Skylines 2... just to name a few. An October release for Alone In The Dark would mean side-by-side competition against all of these highly-anticipated AAA games. This could be risky for THQ Nordic, who are revitalizing an old title with their 2023 release of Alone In The Dark.

One fan pointed out in a Twitter reply that if they were the game's developers, they "wouldn't want to revive a previously dead IP during one of the busiest gaming months of the year."

If I was AITD I wouldn't want to revive a previously dead IP during one of the busiest gaming months of the year.

Going up against Mario, Spiderman and Survival Horror competitor Alan Wake 2 would be commercially suicidal.

— Andy 👁️ Biohazard Declassified (@BioDeclassified) September 5, 2023

It's worth noting that the original Alone In The Dark came out all the way back in 1992, with the most recent single-player game in the survival horror series hitting shelves in 2008. That means this upcoming 2024 release is 32 years - over three decades - after the original release and over 10 years after the last critically-acclaimed game in the series. Alone In The Dark: Illumination was released in 2015 but to little fanfare; this online title put a spin on the series that many fans didn't like.

While it's been a long time since the last Alone In The Dark was released and significantly longer since the series got started, 2024 might just be the best time for developers to tackle releasing this reboot. After all, survival horror reboots and remakes seem to be having another renaissance recently, with the success of Resident Evil 4 earlier this year and fan's widespread excitement about Bloober Team's upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake. Only time will tell whether Alone In The Dark will meet the same success, but fans will only have to wait just a few months to find out.