Sam Barlow's next game is sci-fi horror Precognition

Sam Barlow, the developer behind Her Story and Immortality, has revealed the name of his next project: Precognition. It is being made at his studio Half Mermaid and is described as sci-fi horror. Like his earlier work, it is built around searching through and watching video footage — but this time the material concerns the future rather than the past. The player sees what has not happened yet and can change it.

The announcement comes with a second notable name attached: filmmaker Brandon Cronenberg is a collaborator on the project. That fits Barlow’s track record — his games are assembled from actually shot footage rather than animation, so bringing a director on board is part of the production, not a marketing footnote.

The release details we have

Precognition is targeting spring 2028. It will be published by the new publishing label from Kinetic, the company known for Phasmophobia, and is named as one of that label’s debut titles. So the reveal matters twice over: it tells us what Barlow is working on next, and it gives the first concrete example of what Kinetic’s publishing arm intends to back.

Beyond that, specifics are thin. There is no platform list, no pricing, and no breakdown of how the “see and alter the future” premise translates into moment-to-moment play. With a multi-year runway ahead, this is a direction-setting announcement rather than something to act on.

For anyone unfamiliar with the studio: Her Story and Immortality made Barlow a recognisable name in the archive-investigation niche, where the core loop is combing through video clips and piecing events together yourself. Precognition appears to inherit that approach while layering on a science-fiction hook and a horror tone.

What this means if you were planning to buy

The practical takeaway is that there is nothing to buy yet. A spring 2028 window means any listing claiming to sell Precognition right now deserves scepticism — no storefront release has been announced. The sensible move is to note the project, wait for an official store page, and revisit it closer to launch.

If the news mainly reminded you that your horror shelf is thin, the closest link to this story is Phasmophobia from Kinetic Games, whose publishing label is handling Precognition. It is a co-op ghost-hunting horror that works best with a group of friends and has accumulated a lot of content over the years. On Bazelio it appears in several formats, including Phasmophobia as a Steam gift — check the current price and terms in the seller’s listing, and confirm the activation region before paying.

If Barlow’s style is more your speed — slower, text-and-video investigation games — one buying habit is worth keeping in mind. Titles like these rarely need strong hardware, but they lean entirely on language support, since the whole experience depends on parsing dialogue and documents. Verify subtitle options before purchase. Meanwhile, there is plenty to work through in the PC games section, which collects Steam keys and gifts from various sellers.

To summarise: we now have a title, a genre, a creative team, a publisher and a year. That is enough to put Precognition on your watchlist, and not enough for any purchase decision. Expect more once Half Mermaid and Kinetic show the game in motion.