Texas Chain Saw Massacre Game to Receive Its Final Ever Update This Month

It’s been one hell of a rollercoaster for the Texas Chain Saw Massacre Game. 

When it launched in August 2023, it looked like the next big contender in the asymmetrical horror space. Developed by Sumo Digital and published by Gun Interactive – the team behind the cult hit Friday the 13th: The Game – TCM hit the ground running. The game opened to a respectable 72 on Metacritic, racked up over 17,000 concurrent players on Steam at launch, and even broke 200,000 live viewers on Twitch. Player counts were great and queue times short thanks to a day-one release on Xbox Game Pass. For a brief moment, it looked like this could be the game to finally give Dead by Daylight a run for its money.

But momentum in this genre is a fickle beast.

Shortly after launch, cracks began to show. Content updates were sparse, and when new Family Members and Victims did arrive, they came with a steep price tag which was more expensive than similar DLC characters in Dead by Daylight. Combined with limited map variety, ongoing matchmaking issues, and painful lobby queue times, enthusiasm started to wane.

Things got worse after the game left Xbox Game Pass in August 2024, with many players at the time foreshadowing the game’s death. The game’s recent addition to PS Plus in April 2025 gave it a temporary bump, but didn’t stop the downward trend.

According to SteamCharts, the game has dropped below 700 concurrent players on Steam in recent weeks – barely enough to sustain healthy matchmaking for a multiplayer-only title.

No More Updates

Today – on May 13th – Gun Interactive announced that this month’s patch will be the final one. No more content. No more balance changes. No more bug fixes. The only remaining updates will facilitate the switch to peer-to-peer matchmaking.

In their farewell blog post, Gun stated:

“We feel proud of the game we’ve made and we’re happy that we’re at a point where we feel The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has reached its full potential.”

This means that “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will not be receiving any further future content or support. This means that there will be no more DLC, balance updates, or bug fixes, after our upcoming May patch.”

They did confirm however that “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre will still be playable and is NOT being delisted from store fronts”, so at least the game will be purchasable and playable for the near future.

The Reaction

Unsurprisingly, many fans haven’t taken kindly to this decision. On the game’s subreddit, the frustration is tangible. Many are pointing out that this marks Gun’s second multiplayer horror game to shut down prematurely, after Friday the 13th: The Game was removed from storefronts due to licensing issues and had its servers shut down at the end of last year.

One Reddit user, goddesscarmyn, questions how could Gun “fumble this badly” and hopes the studio “never get[s] a license to another franchise ever again”.

how do you fumble this badly, i hope they never get a license to another franchise ever again.
byu/goddesscarmyn inTXChainSawGame

Another user, northstargobrrrrrr, posted a screenshot of a Tweet from the game’s official account saying that “We are not going anywhere. We’re here for the long haul”.

lol
byu/northstargobrrrrrr inTXChainSawGame

A Trend in the Genre

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Game isn’t the only asymmetrical horror game to face a grisly fate.

At the start of May, Evil Dead: The Game was pulled from storefronts and had its future content scrapped. Last year’s Killer Klowns from Outer Space Game is sitting at a mere 8 players on Steam at the time of writing. Given that the Killer Klowns is a 3vs7 multiplayer, this isn’t even enough players for a full lobby.

And it’s not just horror. Even outside the genre, big-budget multiplayer projects have faltered. Sony’s $400 million hero shooter Concord was pulled from storefronts within months of launch, with refunds issued to players. The live-service model is brutal, and only a handful of games such as Dead by Daylight, Overwatch, and Fortnite seem to weather the storm.

To succeed, these games require a steady stream of fresh content, engaging live events, precise balance updates, and a loyal player base. Miss even one of those targets, and it’s a quick slide into long queue times, frustrated players, and an eventual shutdown.

What’s the Future for Gun

Gun ended their farewell blog with a mysterious teaser:

“What’s next for Gun? …STAY TUNED.”

It’s unclear whether they’ll try to return to the multiplayer horror space or pivot toward something entirely new. But with two high-profile multiplayer games shut down and a community that feels burned, Gun’s next move will need to be something fresh – and, perhaps, single-player.

Whether they’ll risk a third swing at asymmetrical horror remains to be seen.

How do you feel about the game ceasing updates. Was it time for TCM to sunset, or was this ending premature?