Texas Chain Saw Massacre Game Director Responds to Demands for More Movie Content

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, like most other horror classics, has spawned all sorts of sequels, spinoffs, and misguided attempts to recreate the success of the original. This means that when you have a movie-to-game adaptation like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre from Gun Interactive and Sumo Nottingham, your first thought might be that the possibilities for adding post-launch content to the game can go as far as the movies do. That’s exactly the kind of situation that game director and Gun Interactive CEO and president Wes Keltner has apparently been dealing with, and this week, he addressed those sorts of requests by reminding people that the team only has rights to the first movie and that movie alone.

Keltner responded not to anyone in particular but to his followers overall on Twitter this week to address those requests for content beyond the original film. Perhaps Friday the 13th: The Game players (Gun also made that game alongside IllFonic) thought that The Texas Chain Saw Massacre would have content spanning different movies since that’s what the former had, but licensing with movies and horror movies in particular is tricky, so the first movie plus original content is the plan for now.

“Friendly reminder. We have the interactive rights to the 1974 film. We can’t put characters or locations in from other TX films because we don’t have those rights,” Keltner said. “Demanding we add them is not how Hollywood works. Licensing in general is usually a total mess.”

He replied to his own tweet urging players to “get hyped for what’s there” but also to “tell everyone you know” about the game. He added that “Hollywood reacts to buzz, not demands,” so if there’s enough attention on the game, perhaps others will take note and will get those sorts of licensing processes moving.

For clarity. I'm not saying it isn't possible. I'm saying that we're focused on the first film. That's what we have the rights for, however in the future we can pursue the other films. Nothing is guaranteed. But the higher the hype, the more likely "Hollywood" picks up the phone. https://t.co/PGgspUM00B

— WesKeltner 🎃 (@weskeltner) June 3, 2023

Keltner clarified in a follow-up tweet by saying that “it isn’t impossible” to add more content from movies beyond the first film, so players can still hope for that to happen so long as they remember that “nothing is guaranteed.”

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre just recently wrapped its first public playtest where people were invited to try out the game throughout the course of the long Memorial Day weekend. Our own experiences with the game during that time showed it to be a strong contender in the asymmetrical multiplayer genre. It’s not due out until August, so the developers have some time between now and then to address some concerns that might’ve come up during the playtest and, hopefully, to give players another chance to play the game before its full release.