The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One generation introduced many new IPs to the video game industry that are continuing to flourish today. It can be especially risky to launch a new IP nowadays given the unproven nature of new ideas and safety of depending on sequels but one of the most beloved new horror franchises was Tango Gameworks' The Evil Within. While the first game in the series was a success, its sequel failed to meet sales expectations. Now, Tango Gameworks has revealed that its newest title, Ghostwire: Tokyo, originally started life as The Evil Within 3.
The Evil Within was first released in October 2014 and was the first title by Tango Gameworks, a new studio founded by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami under Bethesda, and pitched as a return to survival horror from the mastermind behind the genre. The game was met with positive critical reception and was a major sales success, becoming the best-selling game of its launch month and going on to sell over 1 million copies.
Tango soon got to work on an Evil Within sequel, which received even better critical reception than its predecessor when it launched in October 2017. However, due to its tough competition in titles like Super Mario Odyssey, Assassin's Creed Origins, and Bethesda's own Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, the game seemingly failed to meet sales expectations. In fact, the game was not even supported with post-launch DLC like its predecessor.
While promoting the studio's newest game, the supernatural action game Ghostwire: Tokyo, director Kenji Kimura revealed that the project originally started out as the third entry in The Evil Within series. Speaking to GameSpot, Kimura revealed that Ghostwire: Tokyo's concept was originally sprung off of an idea that game from a pitched sequel to The Evil Within 2, claiming that the idea evolved into creating a fun game that was set in a real Japanese city.
Last year, during an interview with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer at Tokyo Game Show, Shinji Mikami revealed that The Evil Within 2 director John Johanas had begun work on Tango Gameworks' next project to follow Ghostwire: Tokyo. Following Microsoft's purchase of ZeniMax in 2021, this will likely be Tango's first new project that is exclusive to Xbox, a platform that has not found much succes in Japan. Given that this version of The Evil Within 3 became Ghostwire: Tokyo, it would not be reaching to assume that Johanas' next project could be the fully realized version of the third entry in Tango's underrated survival horror series. Only time will tell, however, as this title is likely a few years out from its announcement.
Ghostwire: Tokyo will release on PC and PS5 on March 25th 2022.
Source: GameSpot