The intriguing image above was posted by developer Red Barrels very appropriately on Halloween, with a promise to reveal more soon. Red Barrels is the developer of first-person horror games Outlast and Outlast 2, but this tease doesn't necessarily mean we're about to get an official announcement about Outlast 3.

Messaging about Red Barrels' next game has been mixed. Back in 2017, Red Barrels said on Facebook "We will, at some point, make an Outlast 3" but in the same post stated it was working on something else. "It won’t be a sequel to Outlast or Outlast 2, but it will be a distinct experience set in the Outlast universe." And in 2018, developer Phillipe Morin of Red Barrels said that Outlast 3 itself would be "a departure" from the first two games in the series. 

So this definitely could be Outlast 3, but in a way that doesn't really feel like a sequel. Or it could be something that's not a sequel but is still related to the world of the original games. Huh.

The image might give us a few clues. There's a tag around the wrist of the lower arm that reads "MK-329 and then three more digits I can't quite make out. 800? And if you want to take the image extremely literally, you could speculate that the two clasped hands might hint at a co-op horror experience. And since the Outlast games revolve around the MKUltra experiments, it's safe to reason the tag is connected somehow. Whatever this is, a spin-off or sequel, we're curious. Outlast 2 was pretty damn good. 

Intriguing! Hopefully the "soon" in "Announcement coming soon" will be of the 'very soon' variety rather than the 'later-soon' ilk.

I can't write about Outlast 2 without recalling Tim's 'charred baby pit' preview headline, which perfectly captures the tone of Red Barrels' survival horror sequel. Pitches like that are a hard mould to break, I imagine, particularly when the series in question has sold 15 million units and has accrued $64 million. 

Speaking at Berlin's Quo Vadis conference (via gamesindustry.biz), the developer's Philippe Morin said despite his desire to do "something completely different" next, the success of the Outlast series is difficult to overlook. With this in mind, Red Barrels' next game will be "a departure" from its previous ones, reports GI.biz, but will be set in the same overarching universe.    

"If you'd told me a year ago that the project we're currently working on was going to be our next thing, I would have said, 'Nah, I don't think so'," says Morin. "It's an internal struggle. On the one side you have to stay motivated as a developer, but at the same time we have to think about stuff as company owners.

"That's why it took us several months to find the sweet-spot between doing something that's going to please the fans, and something that we're driven by personally. In big studios, they can say, 'If you're burnt out we can always give the IP to a different team'. But that's not the case here."

Morin adds that he and his team are in the prototyping phase of their next venture, and are considering their budget. Outlast had a production budget of $1.36 million CAD (approx £783,760/$1.06 million USD), while Outlast 2 cost five times that.    

"Are we going to need the same kind of budget?" asks Morin. "Can it be lower? Right now, I don't know. All I know is that I always make sure we have options on the table: plan A, B, C and D. When you get to the river, you decide which bridge you want to cross. 

"I always tell the team that, since the studio is owned by developers, our interests as developers is as important as our interests as shareholders. We don't want to change that."

Gamesindustry.biz's report from Berlin's Quo Vadis conference can be read in full here.

Fans of the Outlast series were treated to a stack of news yesterday evening, all tucked into a post on the game's official Facebook page. 

After declaring the series en route to Nintendo's Switch console in the new year, Red Barrels said it has no plans to extend number two by way of DLC in the immediate future. 

On the latter, the developer said: "About the future, many of you have been requesting a DLC. While the first Outlast was made with the idea of a DLC in mind, that was not the case for Outlast 2. We’ve considered many options, but none of them felt appropriate for a DLC. Outlast 2 was created to make you feel like a rat in a maze, without any knowledge of what’s outside the maze."

Red Barrels then points players towards the game's offshoot comic series as a means of plugging the narrative gap, before turning to the possibility of a third game. "We will, at some point, make an Outlast 3 and answers will be given," the Facebook post adds.

The post continues: "Currently we’re working on something a lot of you have been asking for... It won’t be a sequel to Outlast or Outlast 2, but it will be a distinct experience set in the Outlast universe. We can’t say more right now, we first need to make sure we can make it work. Like I mentioned, we strive to be risk-takers and this one is a pretty big challenge. If all goes well, we’ll soon be able to reveal more."

Nothing solid there, then. But the wording—"It won't be a sequel… but will be a distinct experience set in the Outlast universe"—to me suggests a VR outing might be in the works.I've reached out to Red Barrels for comment and will report back as and when it replies. Check out the aforementioned Facebook post in full here. 

The Humble Store End of Summer Sale itself came to an end today, which means it's time for the Humble Store End of Summer Sale Encore! Yes, seriously, the sale is over but is also still going on, which means you've got four more days to pick up some of those discounted games you were wavering on yesterday, and more importantly, to snag a free copy of the hit horror game Outlast and its Whistleblower DLC. 

You should know by now how it works, but in case you've missed the previous sale freebie posts, it goes like this: Hit the Outlast Deluxe Edition page on the Humble Store. Click "Add to cart." Click "Checkout." Click "Get it for free." And just, you know, follow the instructions from there. You'll be links to separate codes for the game and the DLC, which have to be redeemed by October 7. 

Outlast, by the way, is very good. Is it scary? "Hell yes," we wrote in our 2013 review. "Outlast can be terrifying, with subtle scares, wonderfully timed surprises, and a crushing sense of dread accompanying you as you inch through the darkened corridors, waiting for something—anything—to happen." 

The Humble Store Outlast freebie will be available until 10 am PT on September 23. The End of Summer Sale Encore runs until 10 am PT on September 25. 

Some online stores give us a small cut if you buy something through one of our links. Read our affiliate policy for more info.

Red Barrels' scare fest Outlast 2 may stand as an indirect follow-up to its forerunner it s set in the same universe, but breaks from the first s show-stealing Mount Massive Asylum setting and follows a different cast of characters but a new five-issue comic book series aims to bridge the narrative gap between the first and second outing, the developer has announced.

Following the exploits of the unscrupulous Murkoff Corporation, issue one focuses on how Chris Strongfat Walker wound up with superhuman strength and a disliking for pretty much everyone and everything that crosses his path.

Walker, you may recall, is the recurring brute that stalks Miles Upshur in Outlast (and Waylan Park to a lesser extent in its Whistleblower DLC) but, besides scant info gleaned from the odd document scattered here and there within the hospital, the player is offered little explanation as to how he became this way.

This is where the comic comes in, and how all of this ties to Outlast 2 s narrative will undoubtedly become clear as the comic series unfolds. Outlast 2, by the way, promises things like walking over charred baby pits and crotch-stabbing. Do read on at your peril.

The first Outlast, the way we saw it, was that it was going to take your physical integrity, Red Barrels' Phillipe Morin told Tyler in the following video interview. In this one we want to take your mental integrity as well.

Outlast 2 is due to launch later this year, however issue one of The Murkoff Account can be read for free here.

I was burned out on Humble Bundles after the first couple. In part it was because my cup runneth over with games I've never installed and bundles contribute to Steam library shame in a big way. But there's also the fact that the quality is highly variable from one bundle to the next. Humble Indie Bundle 16 is obscenely well endowed.

You can pay what you want for Retro City Rampage DX, Never Alone (a lesson in Inuit folklore) and horror spectacular Outlast along with 80% off its Whistleblower DLC. For paying above the average ($6.17 at time of writing), you'll unlock Trine 3 and Door Kickers, which was one of 2014's tactical surprises. The bundle comes just as Door Kickers 2 has been announced. Coincidence? Well, no, not at all, but it's still a great opportunity to see what the series is all about.

It's $2 above the average price that the bundle goes from great to stupendous. Those two dollars get you Else Heart.Break(), which Andy raved over in our review, and Sunless Sea, which I rave over if you stand still long enough to listen. It's a bundle packed with personality, and if you don't already own the standouts, it'll fill a gaping void in your collection.

Outlast, from Montreal-based indie studio Red Barrels Games, was a pretty good horror game: Vaguely Amnesia-like at first blush but faster-paced and more overtly gruesome. It was successful enough to warrant a sequel, which Red Barrels confirmed last year is in development. So when I say the studio is teasing something on Twitter, it's not the conventional sort of "What could it be?" tease, but rather the promise of a proper reveal and, hopefully, a goodly portion of details.

pic.twitter.com/DdTu1opJ4j

— Red Barrels Games (@TheRedBarrels) October 28, 2015

The tweet isn't the only thing hinting at action on the Outlast 2 front. The entire Red Barrels website is now just a grey page emblazoned with the studio's logo, an email link, and the words, "Coming soon... Things are going to get bloody!"

Red Barrels hasn't revealed much about its plans for Outlast 2, although it did say when it announced the sequel that it won't be set in Mount Massive, the crumbling asylum that was home to the first game. More recently (as in, yesterday) it said on Twitter that it hoped to have it ready for release sometime in 2016.

Thanks, OnlySP.

Outlast, the indie horrorfest about an unlucky journalist stumbling through a crumbling, not-at-all-abandoned insane asylum, did pretty well for itself last year. "Is Outlast scary?" our review asked, in the rhetorical way reviewers like to. "Hell yes." And so it's not surprising (but still very good news) that developer Red Barrels has finally confirmed that a sequel is in the works.

The news came from Red Barrels co-founder Philippe Morin, who told Bloody Disgusting that while it will be some time yet before the game is ready, the studio is working on it. "After shipping the Xbox One version of Outlast, we took some time to analyze our situation and we quickly realized we had at least another horror game in us," he said. "So, yes, we are working on Outlast 2."

Morin didn't reveal anything in the way of details, saying that "part of the fun of playing a horror game is the sense of discovery and progressively understand wtf is going on," but players won't be returning to Mount Massive in the sequel.

"The game will be a survival horror experience and it will take place in the same universe as Outlast, but it will have different characters and a different setting," he said. "We might go back to Mount Massive Asylum one day, but for now we have new ideas and themes we d like to explore and we think we re cooking up something special."