Dear reader, I hope you’re in the mood to possibly suss out artificial humans from real ones, because there’s a new Blade Runner game on the way from Annapurna Interactive. Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth will be the first game in the series since 1997’s Blade Runner on PC, and it will also be Annapurna Interactive’s first game developed in-house.
Annapurna Interactive held its 2023 showcase today, where it announced an upcoming game set in the cyberpunk world of Blade Runner. the 1982 film adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? The last time this cyberpunk noir universe received the video game treatment was in 1997, with a point-and-click adventure from Westwood that resurfaced with a GOG rerelease in 2019 (let’s not talk about its disastrous 2022 remake). There aren’t a whole lot of details about this new Blade Runner game just yet, but today’s teaser trailer does a pretty good job of nailing those classic vibes. Cue the Vangelis (RIP):
The title and teaser trailer do give us a few clues about what to expect: It’ll be set after Black Out 2022, the short anime film directed by Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichiro Watanabe. That means it’ll also be set before the upcoming live-action TV series, Blade Runner 2099, which is being produced by Alcon Television Group for Amazon Prime.
According to the press release, the new game will be set in Los Angeles and will be directed by Chelsea Hash, who previously directed Solar Ash and Kid Anesia: Exhibition and was the lead technical artist on What Remains of Edith Finch, among many other games. The developer promises to reveal more information about the game soon.
Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth is slated to come out on PC and console, though no release window is known.