Phasmophobia studio Kinetic Games is branching out into indie game publishing, and is actively seeking “creative games from small teams and solo developers globally, who have a clear vision for their title and are 12-18 months from release”, a press release said.
Studio founder and Phasmophobia creator Daniel Knight launched Kinetic Publishing to provide the kind of assistance “I’d have appreciated at the start of my journey”. The website stipulates “no blockchain, web3 or AI generated games”, and lays out some of the services Kinetic will offer.
I spoke to Knight last year about making Phasmophobia, and I was surprised by how difficult the game’s gigantic success was to deal with. It was the business admin he struggled with, such as setting up a company and paying server costs and hiring people. Mundane stuff, but stuff that pulled him away from actually making the game.
Knight now has a team of 30 people at Kinetic to help him, though – plenty of people to finally complete Phasmophobia and get the game to version 1.0. It’s been in early access for over five years now. But this year’s the year, and the 1.0 release will be a big one.
In a Steam update post for Phasmophobia on 25th December, Kinetic wrote: “Our aim with the 1.0 launch is to be able to, as a team, look at Phasmophobia after many years of updating, iterating and evolving and know we’ve fulfilled our vision for the game.
“Our horror update will be the meatiest part of the 1.0 release and will give even the most seasoned Ghost Hunter a host of new scares and surprises. While we aren’t going to share too many details on it as we want that 1.0 release to feel as fresh and exciting as the original release did, keep an eye out for a few details throughout the year.
“Phasmophobia 1.0 will launch in 2026 for all players, across all available platforms at the same time.”