Updated

Updated · Eurogamer.net · Aug 12

Sam Barlow Details 2028 Horror Game Precognition, Built Around Future-Memory Manipulation

Updated

Updated · Eurogamer.net · Aug 12

Sam Barlow Details 2028 Horror Game Precognition, Built Around Future-Memory Manipulation

Q: How will saving a single memory completely rewrite the future in Barlow's ambitious new FMV thriller?

In Precognition, saving a single memory rewrites the future because Diana’s implant turns future events into editable “memories,” and the act of preserving one specific moment changes the chain of cause and effect that would have led to it. Sam Barlow has described the mechanic as Diana watching visions of her own future, selecting an instant from them, and committing it to memory in the present. The moment she does that, the future shifts and a new version of events unfolds. In practical terms, players are not just observing possible outcomes; they are choosing which fragment of the future to anchor, and that choice triggers a branching timeline. That is the core design of the game. Diana, a former child prodigy with an unusual memory, can retain these future visions when others in the experiment cannot. Barlow compared it to collecting “Polaroids” of the future: players decide what detail is important enough to bring back, whether it is a clue, a betrayal, or a warning. Once preserved, that information changes Diana’s behavior and the world around her, producing a different future vision. The result is a nonlinear FMV mystery built around investigation, note-taking, and player agency. Rather than following a fixed storyline, players will effectively sculpt an inventory of possible futures, testing how one remembered detail can ripple outward into entirely different outcomes.

3 articles · Updated · Eurogamer.net · Aug 12

Spring 2028 release title Precognition was further detailed by Sam Barlow as a sci-fi horror mystery where players sift video archives of protagonist Diana’s future memories.
Diana’s experimental implant lets her witness future moments and lock selected instants into memory, but each choice triggers a butterfly effect that rewrites the future and generates new visions.
Barlow said the core loop is building an inventory of alternate futures—choosing which clues or outcomes to preserve to steer events—making it one of his most immediately understandable systems.
Brandon Cronenberg co-developed and co-wrote the story with Barlow, and the game is in development for PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X and Switch 2 under Kinetic’s new publishing label.