Fullbright cancels console adaptation of Gone Home

The Fullbright Company have announced they have abandoned work on adapting their 2013 title, Gone Home, to the console market in favour of shifting priorities to the completion of their next game, the science fiction based Tacoma.

In an interview to DuelShockers at the Games Developer Conference, Steve Gaynor (Gone Home’s designer and the co-founder of The Fullbright Company) stated that Fullbright’s partnership with publisher Majesco had come to an end, a claim which the company later confirmed to Eurogamer.

“Our publishing deal with Majesco has ended, and the console version is not in active development,” Gaynor said.

Released on 15th August 2013, opinion on Gone Home was notoriously divisive upon release. While most critics lauded its fresh approach to narrative, its subversion of established genre conventions, its unique tone that mixed film-noir and horror whilst managing to maintain a believable love story, and its unique soundtrack (which consisted of Riot Grrl songs from the early 90s), reaction from gamers, while occasionally positive, was on the whole much more negative. Common complaints included the game’s short life span, frequent use of MacGuffins in the narrative, and what some presumed to be a dishonest marketing campaign which painted the game as a horror title.

Even before Gone Home was released, it had already begun to cause a stir when, in June 2013, The Fullbright Company announced that they would boycott that year’s PAX Prime and not show their game at the Indie MEGABOOTH showcase, as expected, citing remarks from their convention organizers regarding LGBT issues and sexism.

Ultimately, while the game remains divisive, Gone Home won the 2013 BAFTA Video Game Award for Best Debut Game, was nominated for another BAFTA Video Game Award for Best Story, and was declared Digital Spy’s sixth best game in 2013.

Tacoma is currently scheduled for release in 2016.