Back in 2020, British indie studio Kinetic Games launched Phasmophobia, a co-op horror game that allowed you and three other friends to investigate haunted environments and use specialty equipment to detect the presence of a roaming ghost.
Phasmophobia’s usage of voice chat is particularly intriguing, as the in-game local chat and walkie talkies can allow players to communicate with their pals, but speaking in the same room as the ghost can lead to some deadly and terrifying results. Select tools can also be used to attempt to communicate with the ghosts, while other pieces of equipment can record footage remotely or detect freezing temperatures or hidden fingerprints. Successfully identifying the ghost type and taking photographic evidence of it will leave you and your teammates with a high payout, but sticking around in the house for too long risks lowering your sanity and raises the chances of a ghost hunt.
After its early access release on Steam in September, the game surged in popularity during the spooky Halloween season of that year, resulting in significant sales and a plethora of Twitch streams and YouTube videos as content creators gathered to get scared by the fresh ghost hunting game. Although the game remains in early access nearly three years later, Kinetic Games has continued to support it with major updates adding new ghost types, environments and tools alongside bug fixes and further polish. For those wishing for the scariest experience possible, the game also features virtual reality support on PC, offering more immersive encounters with specters and ghouls of all sorts.
Yesterday, as part of the extended edition of the Xbox Games Showcase, the studio revealed that an early access version of Phasmophobia will be making its way to PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PSVR2 this August. The game seems to be on feature parity with the PC version at this point in time, promising ten locations ranging from suburban houses to abandoned schools and prisons, as well as 24 different ghost types with their own various scare tactics and ways of being detected. The console versions will also support crossplay, allowing you to team up with your friends on other platforms so you don’t have to face the horror all alone.
Check out the console reveal trailer below, and keep it here on Hardcore Gamer for more on the latest horror games.
