‘Friday the 13th: The Game’ Winds Down Content Updates Amid Legal Battle

By Alex Kane

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – “Friday the 13th: The Game” has become entangled in screenwriter Victor Miller’s ongoing lawsuit to try to reclaim the rights to characters created for the 1980 slasher film and its 11 subsequent sequels, spin-offs, and reboots.

Consequently, the 2017 online multiplayer game will no longer be supported with future content updates, many of which were announced years ago alongside the game’s Kickstarter campaign . All live-ops support of the game will now be limited to bug fixes, server upgrades, and other quality-of-life maintenance. The game’s directors and co-developers at think tank Gun Media confirmed the news in a press release Monday.

“When we originally learned that the game fell within the crosshairs of this legal dispute, we tried to balance the creation of new content requested by our fans against the maintenance and bug fixing that our community expects and deserves. We attempted to do both within the limits of the legal case,” said.

“We’ve now been forced to accept that the lawsuit makes future content for the game — including alternate play modes, new playable Jasons and counselors, and new maps — unfeasible now or in the future. Although the listed content types will be affected, we remain committed to launching dedicated servers on our console platforms and providing the continued maintenance and bug fixing important to supporting our fan base.”

Two of the game’s project leads took to Twitter to express their disappointment.

Producer Sean S. Cunningham, co-creator of the series and director of the original “Friday” film, contends that Miller’s script was written on a work-for-hire basis, meaning Miller would have no legal basis for his bid to reclaim rights to the franchise. The lawsuit has kept the film series in limbo since 2009’s “” remake.

“Friday the 13th: The Game” launched on May 26, 2017.