The teaser takes place from the perspective of someone watching old VHS tapes with strange titles, like EVP 2 and Philip Experiment. The tape in the VCR is dubbed Don’t Play Alone, which is just as likely to be the name of an in-universe film as it is a warning to anyone who finds the tape. On inserting the tape, we get distorted footage of strange things on the screen, starting with a deer, and a narrator explaining the four stages of something.

While the first step is knocking, stage 2 is supposed to involve movement, with objects moving on their own. Stage 3 kicks up the supernatural aspects of the story, with the narrator noting that “the phenomenon becomes destructive,” due to a strange presence that “wishes to be heard.” Finally, stage 4 is communication. The final stage is punctuated by doors sliding open into complete darkness, and a strange hand popping out, beckoning the viewer to come closer. The tape ends with someone screaming in the background, with quite a few words flashing on the screen: “YOUARENOTSAFE”, “YOUCANTESCAPE”, “ITKNOWSYOU”, “ITHASSEENYOU”, and “TOBECONTINUED”.

It is worth noting that the full title of this next project isn’t revealed anywhere, with the in-game menu of Directive 8020 referring to it simply as “teaser trailer”. It is unlikely to be another one of Supermassive’s rumored projects—O Death—since that one is specially named as another video a player can watch.

Several of the titles of Supermassive’s newer projects were revealed back in 2022 thanks to the discovery of a series of trademarks. Along with the recently-released Directive 8020, the titles include The Craven Man, Winterfold, O Death, and Intercession. Considering the ominous nature of the text shown at the end of this teaser trailer, previous speculation of The Craven Man revolving around a Slenderman-styled mysterious antagonist might just end up being closer to the truth than we first thought. Then again, the apparent demonic possession could lean closer to whatever Intercession ends up being.

Supermassive Games has been hiding teasers for its future projects since the release of The Dark Pictures Anthology – Man of Medan, which had a post-credits teaser for Little Hope. Similarly, Little Hope included a teaser for House of Ashes, and so on. The most recent game, Directive 8020, was teased at the end of The Devil in Me.

Directive 8020 marks the start of the second season of The Dark Pictures Anthology. For more details, take a look at our review, where we gave it a score of 8 out of 10 thanks to the strong emphasis on its themes and compelling character dynamics. Our criticisms largely revolved around a lack of opportunity and payout in using interrogation skills, and an over-reliance on stealth sections.

The games in question are – The Dark Pictures: Directive 8020, The Dark Pictures: The Craven Man, The Dark Pictures: Winterfold, The Dark Pictures Presents: O Death and The Dark Pictures: Intercession. While their respective premises can’t really be discerned like this, it seems like The Craven Man will have a Slenderman-style antagonist while Directive 8020 looks to involve the Moon.

When they’ll be officially announced remains to be seen as well, especially since The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me doesn’t have an official release date or platforms. The story centers on a documentary film crew that ventures to a replica of serial killer H.H. Holmes’ “murder castle” following an invitation. It soon becomes clear that someone is monitoring and forcing them into terrifying acts. Stay tuned for more details in the coming months.

Here's the next few years of The Dark Pictures Anthology games: https://t.co/IWWLCvSUYu pic.twitter.com/QaWsyUaMQF

— Andrew Marmo (@the_marmolade) February 1, 2022