Bloober Team updated its strange countdown page, and fans of a controversial cult-classic horror game from 20 years ago are getting their hopes up for a big surprise

Remember that Bloober Team countdown with the bizarre URL that kicked off at the end of 2025? It grew a little more elaborate today, with additional images and spooky vocalizing, and some old-time horror fans are hoping the studio is teasing a very unexpected remake of the controversial 2006 PlayStation 2 horror game Rule of Rose.

First noticed by Shinobi602 on Bluesky, Bloober's countdown website at remosdneulserorehsoovamceyerd.com (which as far as I know remains undeciphered) now features a stylized image of a rose, and the message "Some things never leave the walls. They only learn to wait." Put your cursor on the rose and it drips some kind of liquid—blood, I suppose.

There's also a similarly drippy "play" button on the page, which if clicked delivers a scratchy message that a quick search reveals is an overwrought recitation of a William Blake poem, The Sick Rose, originally published in 1794 as part of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience collection:

O Rose thou art sick.

The invisible worm,

That flies in the night

In the howling storm:

Has found out thy bed

Of crimson joy:

And his dark secret love

Does thy life destroy.

Dark stuff! What it means in the Bloober Team context is anyone's guess, but some folks are guessing (or at least hoping for) a remake of Rule of Rose, a game that caused a certain amount of uproar when it came out in 2006 over rumors of morally dubious content.

As a result, it wasn't released in a number of markets, and that's made it a collector's item: Kotaku listed it as one of eight games worth a lot of money (admittedly not the most precise analysis) in 2019; it also noted, as others have, that it's not very good, especially when compared to similar releases like Silent Hill 2.

That's where the Bloober Team part of the equation is carrying a lot of weight. Bloober nailed the remake of Silent Hill 2 in 2024, silencing doubters and shifting perceptions of the studio: It proved it's good at remaking horror games, the thinking goes, and so maybe it can make this horror game good. Right?

But this is all just a theory, and one relevant part of the internet doesn't seem to be buying it: The Rule of Rose subreddit. There's not a lot of conversation about it—it is not the biggest and most active subreddit ever—and most of what's there is doubtful: The quotes aren't particularly relevant to Rule of Rose, and it's not as though there's a big demand for a do-over.

On the other hand, it has to be something, and this is as good a theory as any—that is definitely a rose, after all. We'll find out in, as of right now, just over 17 days: A quick consult of the calendar means the countdown will zero out either late on February 14 or early February 15.