Sam Barlow and Brandon Cronenberg Team Up for Precognition, a Sci-Fi Horror Game Arriving 2028
Sam Barlow's studio Half Mermaid has unveiled its next game: a sci-fi horror title called Precognition, developed in collaboration with filmmaker Brandon Cronenberg and scheduled for release in spring 2028 (Eurogamer, 2026-08-12).
Barlow is the four-time BAFTA-winning writer-director behind Her Story and Immortality — narrative games built around players piecing together stories from fragments of recorded video. Half Mermaid, the New York City-based studio he founded in 2017, has been teasing this project since June 2024, when it was first announced under the codename "Project C" in partnership with Blumhouse. The collaboration with Cronenberg was revealed at the same time, though the game's title, premise, and release window are new.
Precognition follows Diana, a former child prodigy with a photographic memory who receives an experimental implant that lets her see visions of her own future. Like Barlow's previous work, players comb through archives of video clips to solve a mystery — but here, those archives are Diana's future memories. The game introduces a mechanical twist on the formula: players hold triggers down to commit moments from the visions to memory, deciding what Diana retains and what slips away.
Cronenberg co-developed and co-wrote the story alongside Barlow. The director is known for the body-horror films Infinity Pool, Possessor, and Antiviral, and is the son of filmmaker David Cronenberg, whose own work on films like Videodrome and The Fly helped define the genre. The creative pairing pairs two artists working in adjacent territory: recorded media, identity, and the things technology does to both.
Precognition is also a launch title for a new publisher. The game is one of the debut releases from Kinetic Publishing, a label created by Kinetic Games — the studio behind Phasmophobia, the cooperative ghost-hunting game that has sold more than 25 million copies (GamesBeat, 2026-01-08). Kinetic Publishing was set up to support other independent developers, and announced its own indie game showcase event in July 2026 (Gamespress, 2026-07-29).
Natalie Watson produces Precognition. The project's earlier life under the Blumhouse partnership included a teaser video posted by Blumhouse Games in August 2025, in which Barlow and Watson offered hints about what was then still called Project C.
For players familiar with Barlow's earlier games, the appeal is clear: the same archive-sifting detective work, now wrapped in a story about someone who can see what has not happened yet. For those coming in from Cronenberg's films, the game promises the same unease about bodies, memory, and the technology that interferes with both — rendered as something you play rather than watch.
Spring 2028 is the stated release window. No price or platform details have been announced.
