Pocketpair Publishing – the indie publishing arm of the studio behind Palworld – has officially announced horror game Dead Take along with Tales of Kenzera: Zau developer Surgent Studios. The horror title was announced alongside a new trailer, which you can check out below.
While the short teaser trailer doesn’t really reveal much in the way of details, it does give us a hint about what kind of horror we can expect from Dead Take. There is also a heavy use of old-school video artefacts, including scenes filled with static, that also have hidden messages for players to uncover. The teaser caps things off with a simple “coming soon”, with no confirmation of a release window.
According to Surgent Studios, Dead Take’s story will revolve around players slowly uncovering the darkest secrets of the entertainment industry that have been hidden behind a clean, glittery facade. However, the studio doesn’t yet seem keen on revealing more details as of yet, with CEO Abubakar Salim talking about being delicate about the game’s subject matter.
“We’re being secretive for a reason,” said Salim in a statement included with the press release announcing Dead Take. “The subject matter of this game is delicate, and it hits close to home. When it comes out, and it won’t be long until it does, I want players to think, ‘I can’t believe they actually did this.”
Pocketpair and Surgent Studios had announced this partnership all the way back in January, with the publisher revealing that Surgent’s new game will be its first publishing project. At the time, the game was simply described as being a “brand new horror game” with “an original approach.”
Salim had further expanded on the partnership by talking about how Surgent Studios and Pocketpair are a good fit together because both companies like to take risks. He also said that Dead Take will be “short and weird”. He also revealed that the studio was in further talks to make more titles based on the Tales of Kenzera: Zau universe.
“We noticed a pattern in the entertainment industry, and Pocketpair has given us the opportunity to make a horror game about it,” said Salim. “Both Surgent and Pocketpair are well versed in taking risks. This game will be short and weird, and we think players will be interested in what we have to say.”
“We’re still in earnest conversation about further projects set in the Tales of Kenzera universe, but this will be a standalone piece: a mile marker between where we’ve come from and where we’re going.”
Pocketpair, for its part, had later revealed that it had started getting pitches from indie studios in less than 24 hours after announcing its plans to go into game publishing. “We announced Pocketpair Publishing 15 hours ago… My inboxes were 0 before then… I think I might have underestimated how much interest here would be,” wrote communications director and publishing manager John Buckley on X.
Dead Take is slated for release on PC. It is currently unknown whether it will be coming to consoles as well. In the meantime, there’s a Steam store listing where you can wishlist the title.
