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Oxenfree II: Lost Signals

Platform(s): Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5
Genre: Action/Adventure
Publisher: MWM Interactive
Developer: Night School Studio
Release Date: July 12, 2023

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Netflix Acquires 'Oxenfree' Developer Night School Studio

by Rainier on Sept. 28, 2021 @ 3:51 p.m. PDT

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals features an all-new cast of characters in a narrative driven, supernatural mystery-thriller set five years after the events of the original.

Five years after the events of Oxenfree, Riley returns to her hometown of Camena to investigate mysterious radio signals. What she finds is more than she bargained for.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is a player-driven narrative game that follows the story of Riley, an environmental researcher who returns to her hometown Camena to investigate mysterious radio frequency signals causing disturbances in electronic equipment throughout the town and stumbles upon ghostly happenings. Oxenfree II: Lost Signals will offer players an exciting and original story as they dive deeper into a paranormal mystery.

A campsite where people mysteriously vanish. A bridge that’s always cold, even in summer. Woods where a disturbed killer still wanders the trail. In Camena — a community in Northern Oregon — that story is about a submarine from World War 2 and a collection of lost and terrifying spirits.

In Oxenfree II, you’ll use much of the same tools as the original Oxenfree, a narrative game revolving around a robust conversation system and a radio that tunes into supernatural signals.

In Oxenfree II: Lost Signals, you play as Riley Poverly. If you’ve watched our teaser trailer, she’s the one with the flashlight, running around in that snazzy yellow vest. In Oxenfree, our characters were just finishing high school, and entering that period of time in their lives when they get to decide who they really want to be. Riley had that moment long ago, and is now grappling with the repercussions of post-adolescence. Were the choices she made the right ones for her? Is she who she really wants to be?

As of today, Night School Studio is joining the Netflix team.

Over the last few months, we’ve had countless thoughtful chats about our respective visions for where we see games, storytelling, and our collective opportunity for positive impact somewhere in the middle.

Night School wants to stretch our narrative and design aspirations across distinctive, original games with heart. Netflix gives film, TV, and now game makers an unprecedented canvas to create and deliver excellent entertainment to millions of people. Our explorations in narrative gameplay and Netflix’s track record of supporting diverse storytellers was such a natural pairing. It felt like both teams came to this conclusion instinctively.

Of course, it’s a surreal honor to be the first games studio to join Netflix! Not only do we get to keep doing what we do, how we like to do it, but we get a front-row seat on the biggest entertainment platform in the world. The Netflix team has shown the utmost care for protecting our studio culture and creative vision. We’ll keep making OXENFREE II. We’ll keep cooking up new game worlds.

For now, there’s a kaleidoscope of butterflies in our team’s collective stomachs. (Apparently that’s what you call a group of butterflies?) Because we truly believe we’ve got a chance to positively impact the way people discover, play, and share story games with each other.

LET’S GO.

Born and raised in Camena to a veteran father and an absent mother, Riley moved away at the first opportunity, bouncing around between cities and jobs in an attempt to conjure up some direction in her life. Now, a recent change has pushed her to return to her old hometown, to take an entry-level job as an environmental researcher.

You see, the last couple of months have been odd ones for Camena. Unnaturally occurring electromagnetic waves have been interfering with the electrical and radio equipment around the small coastal town. TVs have been turning on and off. Planes have lost radar. Stations can’t transmit their signals through static. A research group from a nearby college has been contracted to study the phenomena and to trace the source of whatever’s causing the interference. Riley’s job, as a new, freshly hired research assistant — is to do the grunt work: plant radio transmitters in prescribed areas and report back the data those transmitters collect. Easy! 

Until… well… things start going… weird.

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals is coming to Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5 and PC (Steam) in 2022.


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