Canceled ‘Scream’ Video Game Prototype Discovered in Massive Steam Leak

A massive leak of old Steam files has unearthed a fascinating piece of Scream history: a playable multiplayer game prototype that appears to have been developed by Fatshark, the studio that would later make Warhammer: Vermintide and Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.

Dread Central’s Mary Stowe reports on this after user Roly Poly Reaper discovered several builds of the previously unknown Scream project buried within the enormous Steam leak. Roly Poly Reaper subsequently managed to get the multiplayer functionality working with other fans through an emulator, giving us a look at what Scream could have been as an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game.

And this thing is old.

According to Kotaku, information pulled from the files suggests Fatshark was working on the prototype around 2011, a full five years before Dead by Daylight and six years before Friday the 13th: The Game popularized a very similar style of licensed asymmetrical horror.

The basic setup has one player controlling Ghostface while the others play survivors attempting to escape the masked killer.

Digging deeper into the files suggests this may never have progressed beyond the pitch stage. Roly Poly Reaper discovered folders labeled “Scream_Pitch” and “Screampitch_inside,” while the associated Steam depot was previously identified as “Scream Prototype.” The final build discovered in the leak reportedly dates to February 2011, just a couple of months before Scream 4 arrived in theaters.

In other words, we don’t actually know that a fully licensed Scream video game was greenlit and subsequently canceled. It’s entirely possible Fatshark built the prototype as a pitch in hopes of securing the license and simply never got the opportunity to take it any further.

@dreadcentral Files for a licensed Scream game were found in the recent Steam leak.