The Medium is a game that a lot of horror fans have been looking forward to for quite some time now. With dynamic camera perspectives, next-gen graphics and visual polish, and the promise of a return to a more Silent Hill-esque horror experience, The Medium seemingly has a lot to offer players. Although, some players have begun to notice a rather curious quality the game possesses that has nothing to do with its horror elements.
The studio that developed The Medium, Bloober Team, has published quite a lot of other horror games in the past, but arguably nothing quite as ambitious as The Medium. Many of the developers have stated multiple times that due to the technical scale that The Medium possesses, the game could only exist on next-gen hardware, but one thing that was a little strange was the exclusivity of The Medium, considering it’s only available on PC and Xbox Series X/S.
However, a rather unusual occurrence has been happening to players once they beat the game. Upon completing the game, players will be given a prompt asking them to review the game via the Microsoft Store. This prompt isn’t too dissimilar to the way a mobile game will ask users to review the app as a way of gaining popularity or how some indie games on Steam will ask players to leave a review.
This seems rather interesting, considering that there aren’t too many big-named, Xbox exclusive games asking players to review the game immediately after beating it. Then again, Bloober Team is a much smaller development studio by comparison, so this could just be the studio’s way of expanding its brand and continuing to get its name out there.
However, it could simply be the developers wanting to know what players think about the game and wanting to make themselves better developers. In which case, that sentiment is quite inspiring and extends to other studios as well. For instance, Supergiant Games had its latest game, Hades, in early access for over two years as a way to hear directly back from players and be given feedback in real time.
It will be interesting to see what the future holds for Bloober Team. The studio has certainly come a long way since Layers of Fear, and the fact that the studio was able to make a game that is as visually and technically impressive as this one not four years after the release of its very first game is just as impressive.
The Medium is set to launch on January 28th, 2021 for PC and Xbox Series X/S.
