The Park, a new horror game set in a creepy amusement park, will launch on May 3 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, developer Funcom (The Secret World, Age of Conan) has announced. It’s notable because The Park represents Funcom’s first console release since 2006’s Dreamfall: The Longest Journey. The Park initially debuted on PC in October 2015 in time for Halloween. Funcom was pleased by the success and reaction on PC, saying today the game generated 10 million-plus views on YouTube.
Inspired by first-person exploration games like Gone Home and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, The Park sees gamers playing as Lorraine, a mother who has lost her son in a eerie amusement park. Losing a child in an amusement park is scary enough by itself, but this is no usual park.
“Amusement parks are happy places, filled with the innocent joys of childhood and the exhilarating rush of hair-raising, but safe adventure,” reads another line from the game’s description. “Balloons, cotton candy, and fantastic rides to be dared. Perhaps that is how Lorraine pictured it too when she brought her son Callum to one… just before it descended into the most terrifying nightmare of her life.”
“Most amusement parks are happy places, but not all of them.”
The Park is the result of a new business strategy that Funcom where it will develop “small, experimental, and innovative” games that focus on new concepts and platforms (VR and AR were two examples) and use the company’s existing IP. Funcom said it hopes this strategy will help pull it out of the financial trouble it’s in as a result of Lego Minifigures Online’s poor performance.
Funcom isn’t expecting to make much money from The Park. Instead, the developer’s main objective with the game’s console release is to “acquire knowledge and experience with the processes” related to launching games for PS4 and Xbox One in an effort to reduce risks for the upcoming launch of Conan Exiles, and other games, on console in the future.
The Park sells for $13 on PC, but pricing for the console launch has not been announced.
