To the surprise of many (and consternation of some), a small indie PC game called Gone Home appeared widely in many game-of-2013 discussions and lists. Now developer The Fullbright Company and publisher Midnight City (the indie publishing arm of Majesco) have announced that the game will be coming to consoles sometime this fall.
The exact consoles Gone Home will appear on have not yet been announced, but the recent love-fest between Sony and indie games suggests that the title will likely see a debut on the PlayStation 4. The Fullbright Company did not appear on Microsoft’s list of indie developers working with the ID@Xbox program as of late February.
“Ever since we released Gone Home on PC, we’ve had people asking us – ‘When’s it coming to console?,” said Steve Gaynor, writer, designer, and co-founder of The Fullbright Company. “We’ve been looking and looking for the right partner to help us, and finally after much searching, Midnight City fit the bill. They have a great understanding of what an indie needs, how to get the word out about the game, and help us get the best versions of the game possible to all those players that have been waiting patiently to experience Gone Home in their living rooms.”
As a game that doesn’t easily fit into a gaming genre, Gone Home generated debate about storytelling in video games, female characters in video games, and just what the term video game encompasses. For these reasons alone many critics praised the game and its creativeness.
The game itself is more of an interactive narrative. Players are put into the shoes of Katie, a college-aged girl who returns home from a trip abroad to find her family’s new home abandoned during a stormy night. As Katie, players must search the house for clues to the whereabouts of Katie’s parents and younger sister, Samantha. Though the launch trailer below would suggest otherwise, the title is not a survival horror game and instead presents the all-too-believable story of an average, though troubled, family during the 90s.