One of the indie horror games people have been looking forward to for awhile now is Night of the Consumers – the retail store horror simulator. After getting postponed a few times, it has now been unfortunately postponed to an unspecified time.
To recap, Night of the Consumers has actually been around and in development for years in early builds under developer GERMFOOD.
On YouTube, you can find videos of streamer CoryxKenshin playing a demo build of it from five years ago. Many people were introduced to the game through Cory’s streams, and his song “Where the boxes at” have been referenced by fans of the game as they watch other streamers play.
In one form, Night of the Consumers has been released as part of an itch.io bundle where all proceeds go to the NAACP and the Community Bail Fund. As of the time of writing, that bundle has raised over eight million dollars from gamers, and features other popular indie titles such as Celeste, Night in the Woods, and A Mortician’s Tale.
While the game was originally slated to release in October last year, it was postponed to an unknown release date. Then, earlier this year, it was announced it would release on July 11 – before the developer announced it had been pushed to July 31st instead.
That date was promptly deleted, and the game has been delayed again.
“Sadly still not ready, I regret announcing a release date, it was a mistake,” the developer said. “Not gonna set a new date, I’ll make an announcement in the near future that it is 100% finished and it will release the following day.”
While games like Five Nights At Freddy’s tap into a childhood fear of animatronics, Night of the Consumers taps into the adult fear of having to deal with entitled Karens and greedy bosses that care more about money than their employees.
The wild human enemies in Night of the Consumers represent the obnoxious lovers who believe that workers (whether at restaurants or stores or anywhere else) are their dance monkeys. Though the lead antagonist (so far) is The Manager, the perfect representation of the greedy bosses who decide to replace their workers with automation.
For now, you can wishlist Night of the Consumers on Steam, and play what’s available at itch.io here.
