'Slender: The Arrival' Will Terrorise PS4, Xbox One Gamers This March

"Slender" is one of the more successful examples of the confluence of two niches – horror and indie games. "Slender: The Arrival" was the commercial avatar of the original free indie game that blended heart-stopping jump scares with a low-budget approach to production values, bolstered by compelling gameplay. That was good enough to ensure that the first official commercial release sold exceedingly well on the PC platform. The unprecedented success has prompted this indie title to take the next logical leap onto consoles this time around.

According to VG247, "Slender: The Arrival" will be hitting consoles on March 24. As of now, the title has been confirmed for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The Wii U version, which had also been announced earlier, doesn't have any release date yet.

"The Arrival" isn't Slenderman's first console excursion. The game had already launched on the dominant last-generation consoles – PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 – in September last year. Eurogamer has confirmed the U.S. pricing of the PS4 version to be $10.

Last year's PS3 and Xbox 360 console port launched with two additional levels that weren't included on the original PC release. The PC version distributed through Steam received the extra content through DLC at a later date as per a Joystiq report. As of this writing, there has been no official announcement by the developer Blue Isle Studios regarding the possibility of additional content for the next-gen console ports. But the next-gen console port will contain the DLC content released earlier for the PC version.

"Slender: The Arrival" builds upon the original release by studio Parsec Productions that was distributed digitally as a free download. The original was called "Slender: The Eight Pages" and featured a rather short playtime, wherein players were required to find eight notes scattered around a forest before being jumped by the Slenderman.

"The Arrival", on the other hand, builds upon the original with a new storyline about a female protagonist named Lauren searching for her friend Kate. The gameplay is similar to the jump scare mechanics of the original free title, which has the player exploring creepy abandoned locations using a flashlight.

"Slender: The Arrival" is based on the Internet legend of Slenderman. Created on Something Awful forums as a part of a photomanipulation thread, the concept of being hunted by a thin and abnormally tall man took the Internet by storm and spawned multiple creepypastas and games. "The Arrival" is the only official Slenderman game, which was created in conjunction with Eric "Victor Surge" Knudsen. Knudsen has been credited with creating the meme that has now spawned into a successful videogame franchise.

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Slender: The Arrival Trailer (credit: BlueIsleStudio YouTube channel)