Dear Esther, the first-person, story-driven debut game from developer The Chinese Room, is coming to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 later this year, a full two years after its original release on PC. Self-described as a spiritual prequel to its recent (and rather excellent) Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture, The Chinese Room’s Dan Pinchbeck said the following of the announcement.
We’ve always known that Dear Esther would continue its story, and we’re delighted to be writing that story with Curve Digital. Dear Esther is a hugely important game to us, so it’s great to know it’s in very capable hands – we’re excited to see the reaction from PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players.
Curve Digital will be handling publishing duties this time around, rather than The Chinese Room self-publishing the title as they did on PC.
Everybody’s Gone To The Rapture fans will already be immediately aware of what type of experience Dear Esther offers its players, but if you haven’t played either game, The Chinese Room describes it as a title that does away with traditional game mechanics and instead, focuses on delivering an “uncompromisingly emotional experience.”
Dear Esther is a first-person game about love, loss, guilt and redemption. Driven by story and immersion rather than traditional mechanics, it’s an uncompromisingly emotional experience. Starting life as a cult mod in 2007, Dear Esther is recognised as a major title in pushing forward the boundaries of game design and storytelling and was one of the standout independent releases of 2012.
The Chinese Room says console versions of Dear Esther will be largely the same as the original PC version, but with “subtle tweaks” to how it plays to better accommodate a console audience, whatever that means.
Guess we’ll find out in just a few months. Stay tuned for a firm release date announcement.
