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THQ Nordic has been sitting on a veritable treasure trove of video game intellectual properties for a good long while now, having started its series of acquisitions almost five years ago. One of the IPs it's been holding onto was none other than Alone in the Dark, the ancestor of modern horror games, but it seems like it wasn't just sitting around collecting dust after all.
Though there've been rumors that THQ Nordic has been working on a new Alone in the Dark game for some time now, this wasn't too noteworthy on its own until The Snitch, a notable leaker, tweeted out a potential reference to the horror series just a few days back. Now, however, the Belgian gaming website Smartoys seems to have leaked a whole slew of screenshots from a potential Alone in the Dark remake, as well as the related PlayStation 5 cover art.
Though the page has now been taken down, Smartoys' description of the title harkened back to the story of the original, with both Edward Carnby and Emily Hartwood making an appearance as playable characters. The setting is the Derceto Manor in Louisiana, as fans would expect, and the game's being written by Mikael Hedberg of SOMA and Amnesia fame. It's important to note, too, that some have claimed that there's a new Alone in the Dark being made, and this leak from Smartoys underlines the idea that the publisher may be making the announcement in the near future.
While it's worth taking any leak with a pinch of salt at hand, someone would've had to go to immense lengths to time everything right for this to be a hoax. The fact that Smartoys has taken the page down gives even more credence to the idea that THQ Nordic's acquisition of the Alone in the Dark IP is finally about to pay off. Since the franchise's previous entry, Alone in the Dark: Illumination in 2015, got critically panned and didn't move the story forward in any meaningful direction, it only made sense for the new publisher to scrap everything and start anew, which seems to be precisely what's happening here.
The list of everything owned by Embracer Group — the umbrella company of THQ Nordic, Plaion/Koch Media, Dark Horse Comics, and others — has been steadily growing for years now. Some of its earliest investments took a long while to come to a head, but the company is clearly in it for the long haul. The leaked Alone in the Dark materials suggest that this IP, in particular, could be the company's next big announcement.
It has previously been suggested that Embracer may be working on a game launcher that would seemingly focus on classic, legacy titles for the most part. With remakes of older favorite titles on the book, they could be Embracer's ace in the hole to drive adoption in the gaming community. Judging by the leaks, the Alone in the Dark remake could be getting its official reveal soon, and it's not impossible that Embracer might use the opportunity to announce its game client as well.
Alone In The Dark is rumored to be in development.
