The release date for The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe has been revealed in a trailer that is every bit as bizarre as the game itself. First beginning as a Half-Life 2 mod by Davey Wreden and William Pugh, The Stanley Parable puts players in the role of a faceless office drone whose average nine-to-five life is turned upside down when he discovers that everyone else at his workplace has mysteriously vanished one day. Players guide Stanley on a mission to uncover what has happened, making in-game narrative choices by either following along with a running narration by British actor Kevan Brighting or charting their own path - with the mysterious narrator providing an amusing commentary as he attempts to get Stanley back on the original path or berates him for continuing to disobey his instructions.
Even several years after The Stanley Parable was first released as a standalone game in 2013, fans are still coming up with theories surrounding its many themes and alternate endings, covering a wide range of deep topics like the existence of free will and the nature of the gaming medium in general. Originally released for Steam and later moving to the Epic Store, in 2018, developer Crows Crows Crows announced The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe, an updated release for consoles that will include additional content, but it would later be delayed twice due to many different factors, including complications brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it seems that the long wait for The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe is about to come to an end sooner than anyone was anticipating.
Crows Crows Crows recently posted a new launch date trailer for The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe on its official Twitter account, revealing that the game will be released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on April 27. The trailer itself is as surreal as fans of The Stanley Parable would expect, starting out with the opening cutscene from the original version before pulling back to reveal that Stanley is watching it on a projection screen in yet another empty office. From here, Stanley tries to escape as the narrator asks him to "begin again” and a series of images reveals some of the new locations that will be included in the Ultra Deluxe edition.
The Stanley Parable has been a surprise indie hit over the past couple of years, especially after it was offered up for free alongside the original Watchdogs as part of one of the Epic Games Store's many giveaways in 2020. Both the game's creators have had their own individual successes in the years since The Stanley Parable was first released: Davey Wreden would go on to create a more series title with a similar gameplay style in 2015’s The Beginner's Guide, and William Pugh would partner with Rick And Morty co-creator Justin Roland on several video games as part of Crows Crows Crows.
The Stanley Parable is considered to be one of the most humorous and surreal first-person indie titles of the past few years, and the upcoming Deluxe Ultra re-release looks to add even more trippy alternate paths and biting narration by Kevan Brighting to Stanley’s journey to discover the true meaning of his seemingly empty life. Players will be able to embark on that twisted journey along with him when The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe launches across all major consoles next month.
Source: Crows Crows Crows/Twitter
