Friday, August 7, 2020

End of An Era for Her Interactive's Nancy Drew Games?


As many of you may know, I'm not particularly fond of gossip and I only like to talk about true facts that have been confirmed by a reliable source such as an official press statement from the company.  However, at this time, I feel that if I don't say anything at all from the news that I’ve seen, that it would be misleading if I continued to say nothing.  So in today’s post, we're going to be talking about what I believe might be the end of an era for the Nancy Drew point and click video game series from Her Interactive.  So let's begin!

*As of 2021, I have written an updated version of this post as of 2021 which contains new information titled, "End of Era HeR Interactive 2021 Update" which focuses on what has been happening with HeR in early 2021.*

Over the last few months it seems that HeR has slipped back into being quiet. There’s been no talk about working on another Nancy Drew game. With everything happening in the world, it makes it look like there’s a possibility that things are not what they seem and that it could be an end of an era for HeR Interactive Nancy Drew mystery series. 


HeR Interactive Closing Down?

It has been speculated by many, myself including, that after Midnight in Salem HeR might not be open too much longer.  HeR has seemed to go fairly quiet after the release of Midnight In Salem in December of 2019. Other than posting about there new food contest for this month and advertising the games that are for sale, HeR hasn’t talked much about what they’re planing for the future of the series.  Such as what are they’re currently working on next.


After MID was released, we know that they did not have anything set in stone for the next game in the series, Nancy Drew Game #34.  Though, I do talk about the possible story ideas that HeR could base the next game on: (Story Idea's for Nancy Drew Game 34).  It was also pointed out on Reddit that a former HeR employee, who was their marketing director, that at this time HeR was not working on another game as of May.  Whether this is 100% fact or not is still up for debate since HeR has not confirmed nor denied if they are working on another game.


Hopefully, they are working on another game even if it's in the planing stages, this is just wishful thinking on my part.  I would hate to see MID be the last Nancy Drew game in the series especially since it seemed like they were also hinting at creating a Hardy Boy series in Midnight in Salem as well.


Odd Emails from HeR?

During the last week of July and first week of August, HeR set out some fairly odd emails trying to advertise Midnight In Salem.  Now there's nothing wrong with a company trying to advertise their own game, that’s what any company would do, but it was the format that really confused me the most.  The email was text based instead of its usual colorful image-based emails.  I will 100% admit, I thought Her Interactive newsletter list was hacked.  However, the discount code given in the email was from HeR, but the code has now expired.  I know I wasn't the only one who was questioning why these emails were sent and I honestly cannot fathom why the format looked so odd, since it looked so unlike HeR.


Graph Created for Her Interactive Newsletter Email

I think what really got me was the graph they created to make it look like Midnight In Salem (MID) was such a superior game compared to Curse of Blackmoor Manor (CUR), Ghost of Thornton Hall (GTH), and Sea of Darkness (SEA).  If you think about it, these games don't really have any correlation to MID in the least, in my opinion, other than the fact that the CUR and GTH are spooky game about ghosts and arson.  Which is very similar to the plot of MID.


What also made me want to laugh was the third email that was sent titled, "To be honest, I had by doubts, but when I started the game."  If you ever take a writing class and ever go over the basics of writing an email, then you know that this is not the best subject title you could have used.


Before the emails were sent, they should have been spell-checked since the subject line has "by" instead of "my."  Also, the reviews seemed pieced together so they were worded together In a way to made it seem like a fantastic review, when I know for a fact there seems to be something missing.  Looking at this not only from a fans perspective, but looking at it from a business perspective, these emails seemed to be thrown together and messy.  Honestly, I know HeR Interactive can do better that this.


Unlisted MID Cast Interviews and Unseen Characters and Setting

After learning that these emails from HeR were legitimate I decided to dive into this hidden set of cast interviews to see what they were about.  First, these videos are unlisted so unless you have the link you can’t watch them, which is surprising because these videos would be considered good advertising to encourage people to buy the game from a business stand-point.

Unseen Screen Shot from Midnight In Salem of Olivia and Joe

I found each of these 10 videos fairly interesting since it gives us an idea of what the voice actors were thinking when recording their parts.  What I was highly confusing about was in Olivia Ravencroft’s video where we see the scene above where Olivia and Joe are in front of the Austria castle door!?!?  I was highly shocked at seeing this since its not in the gameplay or in a blooper section, my only question was why was this in her video if it doesn't exist in the game?  Was it a set up for making sure the voice and character match up, was this apart of the game that was cut before the final ending?  I'm not sure what it is, but I would love to know from HeR what this meant!


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Thank you everyone for reading.  If anyone that works at Her Interactive would like to comment about the emails and the company overall then you can find my contact info on the Contact Me page and I would love to update this post with a statement from the company.  I would also like to know from those reading this post, what are your thoughts on everything that has been happening with HeR Interactive and the Nancy Drew series as a whole?  I would love to know.  If you want to check out my other Nancy Drew related posts, you can find them on my Nancy Drew page.  If you want look for game recommendations you can check out my Games Review page.



Until next time,



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