{"id":1947228,"date":"2026-05-21T13:37:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1947228"},"modified":"2026-05-21T13:37:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T10:37:15","slug":"honestly-difficult-to-imagine-a-path-forward-with-it-licensed-paranormal-activity-horror-game-technically-done-for-good-says-mortuary-assistant-creator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1947228","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Honestly difficult to imagine a path forward with it&#8221; &#8211; licensed Paranormal Activity horror game &#8220;technically done for good&#8221;, says Mortuary Assistant creator"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">&#8220;Honestly difficult to imagine a path forward with it&#8221; &#8211; licensed Paranormal Activity horror game &#8220;technically done for good&#8221;, says Mortuary Assistant creator<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">&#8220;I have plenty of new ideas that interest me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/paranormal-activity-threshold_ro3AVHp.jpg?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"A circular red logo with a simple line drawn house inside - the whole image looking like it might have been drawn in blood. Below is the title Paranormal Activity Threshold. And overlaid is the image of a seemingly naked man with a scary pale bald head and black ringed eyes and mouth.\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"paranormal-activity-threshold_ro3AVHp.jpg\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Robert Purchese avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"user-9946-originalxoriginal-14-03-23.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1017\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/robert-purchese\">Robert Purchese<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Associate Editor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-05-21T13:37:15+00:00\">May 21, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mypop-header-wrapper\">\n<p><button class=\"mypop-button button wide\" data-state=\"follow\" data-type=\"tag\" data-uuid=\"4b951947-3425-4769-983e-28ee1ebc2669\" data-name=\"Paranormal Activity: Threshold\" data-follow-text=\"Follow Paranormal Activity: Threshold\" data-unfollow-text=\"Following Paranormal Activity: Threshold\" data-aria-follow-text=\"Follow Paranormal Activity: Threshold\" data-aria-unfollow-text=\"Following Paranormal Activity: Threshold\" data-popup=\"true\" data-force-login=\"true\" aria-label=\"Follow Paranormal Activity: Threshold\" title=\"Follow Paranormal Activity: Threshold\"><br \/>\n  Follow Paranormal Activity: Threshold<br \/>\n<\/button>          <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>The solo developer of horror hit The Mortuary Assistant has told Eurogamer that his officially licensed Paranormal Activity game, Paranormal Activity: Threshold, &#8220;is technically done for good&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DSDigitalDev\/status\/2052420737714040869\/photo\/1\">Brian Clarke revealed development on Paranormal Activity: Threshold had ceased<\/a> because he&#8217;d needed more time to make it. A quirk of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamesindustry.biz\/warner-bros-shareholders-overwhelmingly-back-paramounts-111bn-acquisition\">the impending Warner Bros. acquisition by Paramount Skydance<\/a> meant Clarke had needed to ask Paramount for an extension rather than Warner Bros. And Paramount declined.<\/p>\n<p>Clarke, faced with the decision of rushing out a game he ultimately wouldn&#8217;t be happy with, or parting ways with Paramount, chose the latter.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Paranormal Activity | IHS 2025 Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_WZkOt9EaBI?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/_WZkOt9EaBI\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Paranormal Activity | IHS 2025 Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>The most recent Paranormal Activity: Threshold trailer, showing gameplay.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_WZkOt9EaBI\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a follow-up email exchange, Clarke has now told Eurogamer: &#8220;I can&#8217;t confidently say the Paramount merger influenced the decision. I think, ultimately, they wanted a game to release in Q4 of 2026 and I was asking for more time which made that not possible. If that was due to some new management or something else as a result of the merger, I can&#8217;t say.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The game is technically done for good. I have ideas of how to make what I have work as something new but I don&#8217;t want to promise anything and get myself into a situation where something is expected. There is also a lot of work to sort of decouple what I had designed to be a Paranormal Activity game from other design aspects and make something new. That&#8217;s a lot of work for a project I&#8217;m uncertain about currently and still have a bit of a bad taste in my mouth about.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s honestly difficult to imagine a path forward with it while it&#8217;s still so new,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot I&#8217;d have to do to make it something I&#8217;d be motivated to work on for another year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Given that, Clarke&#8217;s preference seems to be for exploring smaller projects for now, &#8220;since I&#8217;ve become so burnt out on the concept of throwing myself into something for the next two years&#8221;, he said. &#8220;I have plenty of new ideas that interest me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/the-mortuary-assistant-dev-unveils-its-next-horror-project-and-its-a-paranormal-activity-game\">Paranormal Activity: Threshold was announced in 2024<\/a> and was teased with a found-footage style trailer that made it look a bit like a single-player <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/phasmophobia\">Phasmophobia<\/a> game, as players carry camcorders and other gadgets around in order to track and isolate paranormal activity. The game was reportedly demoed at PAX East in the US earlier this year, with <a href=\"https:\/\/techraptor.net\/gaming\/previews\/paranormal-activity-threshold-preview-step-into-new-horror-experience\">previews<\/a> describing a 30-minute chunk that increased in tension and supernatural activity as it progressed. In theory, it doesn&#8217;t sound dissimilar to The Mortuary Assistant.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"The Mortuary Assistant - Official Definitive Edition Announcement Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dmt4gGKz6VI?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/dmt4gGKz6VI\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">The Mortuary Assistant &#8211; Official Definitive Edition Announcement Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>The Mortuary Assistant.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dmt4gGKz6VI\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Mortuary Assistant was released in 2022 and found success on PC before spreading to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S\/X and Switch. The game places you in the position of an assistant working in a mortuary and has you carry out the tasks involved in preparing a body for burial or cremation, such as wiring mouths shut and pumping embalming fluid through them, all in gruesome 3D detail.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>However, that&#8217;s not all that&#8217;s going on. At the same time, the mortuary you&#8217;re working on is being haunted, by a demonic spirit that will possess one of the bodies in your building and bring doom and gloom if you don&#8217;t identify the corpse in question and cremate it first. But you only get a few guesses, so there&#8217;s a bit of restarting and trying again. However, as the game shuffles the next time you play, you can&#8217;t brute force the answer.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a good game &#8211; even I&#8217;ve played it &#8211; and something I particularly appreciate is the horrors it throws at you. The scares are there to be witnessed rather than run away from. It&#8217;s more of a walking simulator in that regard, or spooky point-and-click, which I very much like.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>The solo developer of horror hit The Mortuary Assistant has told Eurogamer that his officially licensed Paranormal Activity game, Paranormal Activity: Threshold, &#8220;is technically done for good&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/DSDigitalDev\/status\/2052420737714040869\/photo\/1\">Brian Clarke revealed development on Paranormal Activity: Threshold had ceased<\/a> because he&#8217;d needed more time to make it. A quirk of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gamesindustry.biz\/warner-bros-shareholders-overwhelmingly-back-paramounts-111bn-acquisition\">the impending Warner Bros. acquisition by Paramount Skydance<\/a> meant Clarke had needed to ask Paramount for an extension rather than Warner Bros. And Paramount declined.<\/p>\n<p>Clarke, faced with the decision of rushing out a game he ultimately wouldn&#8217;t be happy with, or parting ways with Paramount, chose the latter.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"Paranormal Activity | IHS 2025 Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_WZkOt9EaBI?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/_WZkOt9EaBI\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">Paranormal Activity | IHS 2025 Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>The most recent Paranormal Activity: Threshold trailer, showing gameplay.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_WZkOt9EaBI\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a follow-up email exchange, Clarke has now told Eurogamer: &#8220;I can&#8217;t confidently say the Paramount merger influenced the decision. I think, ultimately, they wanted a game to release in Q4 of 2026 and I was asking for more time which made that not possible. If that was due to some new management or something else as a result of the merger, I can&#8217;t say.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The game is technically done for good. I have ideas of how to make what I have work as something new but I don&#8217;t want to promise anything and get myself into a situation where something is expected. There is also a lot of work to sort of decouple what I had designed to be a Paranormal Activity game from other design aspects and make something new. That&#8217;s a lot of work for a project I&#8217;m uncertain about currently and still have a bit of a bad taste in my mouth about.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s honestly difficult to imagine a path forward with it while it&#8217;s still so new,&#8221; he wrote. &#8220;There&#8217;s a lot I&#8217;d have to do to make it something I&#8217;d be motivated to work on for another year.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Given that, Clarke&#8217;s preference seems to be for exploring smaller projects for now, &#8220;since I&#8217;ve become so burnt out on the concept of throwing myself into something for the next two years&#8221;, he said. &#8220;I have plenty of new ideas that interest me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/the-mortuary-assistant-dev-unveils-its-next-horror-project-and-its-a-paranormal-activity-game\">Paranormal Activity: Threshold was announced in 2024<\/a> and was teased with a found-footage style trailer that made it look a bit like a single-player <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/games\/phasmophobia\">Phasmophobia<\/a> game, as players carry camcorders and other gadgets around in order to track and isolate paranormal activity. The game was reportedly demoed at PAX East in the US earlier this year, with <a href=\"https:\/\/techraptor.net\/gaming\/previews\/paranormal-activity-threshold-preview-step-into-new-horror-experience\">previews<\/a> describing a 30-minute chunk that increased in tension and supernatural activity as it progressed. In theory, it doesn&#8217;t sound dissimilar to The Mortuary Assistant.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"video_wrapper youtube\">\n<a aria-label=\"The Mortuary Assistant - Official Definitive Edition Announcement Trailer\" class=\"video-facade full-size\" data-platform=\"youtube\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dmt4gGKz6VI?autoplay=1\" title=\"Click to play video from YouTube\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cover image for YouTube video\" class=\"video-facade__image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/i.ytimg.com\/vi\/dmt4gGKz6VI\/hqdefault.jpg\"><span class=\"video-facade__title\">The Mortuary Assistant &#8211; Official Definitive Edition Announcement Trailer<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/a>\n<\/div><figcaption>The Mortuary Assistant.<a class=\"video\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dmt4gGKz6VI\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Watch on YouTube<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Mortuary Assistant was released in 2022 and found success on PC before spreading to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S\/X and Switch. The game places you in the position of an assistant working in a mortuary and has you carry out the tasks involved in preparing a body for burial or cremation, such as wiring mouths shut and pumping embalming fluid through them, all in gruesome 3D detail.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"injection_placeholder\" data-position=\"2\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>However, that&#8217;s not all that&#8217;s going on. At the same time, the mortuary you&#8217;re working on is being haunted, by a demonic spirit that will possess one of the bodies in your building and bring doom and gloom if you don&#8217;t identify the corpse in question and cremate it first. But you only get a few guesses, so there&#8217;s a bit of restarting and trying again. However, as the game shuffles the next time you play, you can&#8217;t brute force the answer.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a good game &#8211; even I&#8217;ve played it &#8211; and something I particularly appreciate is the horrors it throws at you. The scares are there to be witnessed rather than run away from. It&#8217;s more of a walking simulator in that regard, or spooky point-and-click, which I very much like.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"poll_wrapper\" data-fixed=\"true\" data-hashid data-init=\"false\" data-poll-position=\"1\"><\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News &#8220;Honestly difficult to imagine a path forward with it&#8221; &#8211; licensed Paranormal Activity horror game &#8220;technically done for good&#8221;, says Mortuary Assistant creator &#8220;I have plenty of new ideas that interest me.&#8221; Image credit: Eurogamer News by Robert Purchese Associate Editor Published on May 21, 2026 Follow Paranormal Activity: Threshold The solo developer [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-1947228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1947228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1947228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1947228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1947228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}