It's been rumored for a long time, and now it seems like the reports were true as The Evil Within 2 surfaces in the form of a new ad online. With Bethesda's E3 Showcase scheduled for later today, it seems that an early posting for a Reddit advertisement might just have cost the developer the element of surprise.

According to the ads which have been spotted my multiple users on Reddit, the sequel to 2014's The Evil Within will be available for pre-order immediately following the reveal at E3 later today.

It appears there are two versions of the promotions circulating online, reading either "Bethesda returns you to the nightmare. How will you survive?" or "From survival horror mastermind Shinji Mikami comes The Evil Within 2. The only way out is in."

Expectations are certainly high for Bethesda's conference now, as The Evil Within was known to fans as being an impressive horror title, albeit with a lackluster storyline. Assuming the dev team has listened to player feedback, we could have a massively improved game launching either towards the end of this year or in early 2018.

Given that Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus recently leaked via an Amazon listing, and space RPG Starfield is heavily hinted to be coming at the E3 reveal, much of Bethesda's presentation won't be a shock to the audience, but it's still exciting to see new footage as it releases. With so many people preparing to give the game a smooth launch period, it's harder than ever to keep large-scale conferences like these leak free.

Of course rumors are still just rumors until they're confirmed but this new ad looks pretty convincing. That said, we believed that both The Evil Within 2 and Wolfenstein: The New Order 2 would be coming to E3 last year so Bethesda still has a chance to surprise us, as unlikely as it seems.

The Evil Within 2 has not been officially revealed at this point.