Announced via the official The Outsiders Twitter account, progress has been halted for an indefinite amount of time. The tweet stated that despite “best efforts to continue,” the team has decided that no more work will be done on Darkborn.
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The tweet continued to say that despite this being a pause on the studio’s big game, this doesn’t mean the team doesn’t have new things planned. The tweet said “We have been working on something else. On something new. Something awesome. Something we really love.” The studio teased that news on this project will be coming “very very soon.” This fact was echoed in Goldfarb’s personal Twitter account where he teased voice recording work with Troy Baker.
The Outsiders development team started in 2015. The big news associated with the announcement of a new studio came from the pedigree behind it, namely David Goldfarb and Benjamin Cousins. The duo worked in various capacities at developer DICE on the Battlefield franchise. After Goldfarb’s exit from DICE, he went on to be director of Payday 2 at developer Overkill and left long before the studio was involved in criminal activity. In a 2015 interview with GameIndustry.biz, Goldfarb explained that The Outsiders are dedicated to creating experiences that didn’t fit in the “AAA” mold.
In April 2019, The Outsiders released a 16-minute-long gameplay trailer for what was originally known as “Project Wight,” now with the new official name of Darkborn. The first-person horror saw players take control of a creature called a “Darkborn” as it escapes Viking hunters. Based on the trailer, Darkborn relied heavily on stealth combat utilizing the abilities of the creature. It was a new twist on the traditional hero formula which brought a lot of the positive reception and interest.
It is never good news to see a promising project’s development be halted but this kind of news is unsurprising during a trying time. Horror games have a history of holding disappointing cancellations and Darkborn is another unfortunate addition to a long list. While it is always worth remembering that development has only been put on hold, often projects in such a situation fail to resume.
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Source: The Outsiders/Twitter
