After six years, the multiplayer horror game Phasmophobia is getting a 1.0 release later this year. This upgraded version of the game will offer a bevy of enhancements--from overhauled character models to new maps--but with developer Kinetic Games also branching out into publishing, has development on the 1.0 release been impacted? Not at all, studio CEO and game director Daniel Knight said to GameSpot, as the developer and his team are still locked into the game while the studio hires the right people to manage its publishing duties.
"We've grown to about 45 people at our studio, and we're still growing. So we're making sure anything we're doing outside of Phasmaphobia doesn't affect the development," Knight said. "For me personally, I am exclusively on Phasmaphobia. "We have more than enough people on our team to cover the publishing. We're hiring people on the publishing side as well, so we're making sure that I'm not spread too thin between everything that we are doing."
Director of Marketing and Partnership Asim Tanvir added that the company has a publishing production manager to handle this side of the business, and that Kinetic Games has continued to grow out of necessity, not just for the sake of it.
Phasmaphobia's Horror 2.0 update will see several major changes made to the core ghost-hunting part of the game when it launches in 1.0, with additional ghost events and hallucinations being added. While it doesn't have a release date yet, a Switch 2 port is also on the way. The 1.0 release doesn't have a firm launch date yet, but it is expected to arrive in 2026.
Beyond that, the Tanglewood and Willow Street will be revamped, and Knight previously teased that the studio is working on new "immersive" experiences for players. Phasmophobia was originally released via Steam Early Access in 2020, with PlayStation and Xbox versions following in 2024.
A ghost-hunting simulator that is considered to be one of the best horror games on Steam--and one of the best co-op games you can play today--it wasn't long before Hollywood took notice, as a Phasmophobia movie is now in development.
"We've grown to about 45 people at our studio, and we're still growing. So we're making sure anything we're doing outside of Phasmaphobia doesn't affect the development," Knight said. "For me personally, I am exclusively on Phasmaphobia. "We have more than enough people on our team to cover the publishing. We're hiring people on the publishing side as well, so we're making sure that I'm not spread too thin between everything that we are doing."
Director of Marketing and Partnership Asim Tanvir added that the company has a publishing production manager to handle this side of the business, and that Kinetic Games has continued to grow out of necessity, not just for the sake of it.
Phasmaphobia's Horror 2.0 update will see several major changes made to the core ghost-hunting part of the game when it launches in 1.0, with additional ghost events and hallucinations being added. While it doesn't have a release date yet, a Switch 2 port is also on the way. The 1.0 release doesn't have a firm launch date yet, but it is expected to arrive in 2026.
Beyond that, the Tanglewood and Willow Street will be revamped, and Knight previously teased that the studio is working on new "immersive" experiences for players. Phasmophobia was originally released via Steam Early Access in 2020, with PlayStation and Xbox versions following in 2024.
A ghost-hunting simulator that is considered to be one of the best horror games on Steam--and one of the best co-op games you can play today--it wasn't long before Hollywood took notice, as a Phasmophobia movie is now in development.