The Dark Pictures Anthology series is planned for 8 games, with a new release every 6 months

It may not be out yet, but developer Supermassive Games has big plans for their The Dark Pictures Anthology series, with the first game Man of Medan launching on August 30th. Today it was revealed that the studio is hoping to create 8 titles in The Dark Pictures Anthology series, with plans to launch 2 per year and 6 months apart. Each game in the series is planned to have their own horror genre, with the Curator being the only thing that links them together.

In an interview with IGN, Supermassive CEO Pete Samuels explained a bit about what the concept behind the series is, and how they are looking to expand the story with multiple games:

"We have an arc in mind that plays out over eight games. He's really the only consistency across the Anthology. Everything else from a story, character perspective, we want to be a surprise. We want to surprise people each time - when we announce the second [game], we want it to be the last thing people expected, in terms of theme and subgenre and whatever. And then again with the third one. We have them mapped out for the first eight."

Their goal is to release 2 games per year, which is no small task, however the team are hopeful that they can pull it off. Each game will have the same gameplay mechanics so the story should take priority in most cases and could help ease development a bit:

"Our aim is to get to a frequency of two a year. From concept through to completion they're a couple of years in development, so if you do the math we've obviously got a handful that we're working on in the studio at the moment.

Each game will have a different game director, actors and Dev teams so it should help manage the massive task to allow for multiple games at the same time. Earlier it was revealed that Co-op would be a feature of the series and this will be part of each title going forward. This isn't the first time we've seen this method being used, as the once great Telltale did a similar approach with their episodic games. And for those doing the math, that's 8 games in 4 years.

"They'll be largely the same mechanics. We've no plans to introduce anything else. What we will do is, if we find we need something to tell the story - because that what our mechanics are there for, to tell a story - if we need something else to tell a story well then we won't be afraid to prototype that."

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan launches next month on August 30th. Pre-order the game today to save 15% off and get the Curator's Cut bonus for free! This extended cut mode will be playable after the main game and features scenes playable from the other characters' perspective, with brand new choices and decisions to make.