40 years ago, the Nostromo disappeared... In 2019, Amanda Ripley will uncover the secrets it left behind — no matter what. #AmandaRipley #ReadPlayWatch #January pic.twitter.com/N5XybNB1Tj — Alien (@AlienAnthology) January 5, 2019

20th Century Fox announced the next project, or possible projects, in the Alien universe on Saturday by way of a vague and tantalizing social-media post. This next Alien universe release, slated for a "2019" launch, includes a "read, watch, play" promise, suggesting a mixed-media launch whose various parts could commingle.

Its interactive aspects will be paid off, at the very least, by the protagonist already named in the above teaser: Amanda Ripley. This character, the daughter of Sigourney Weaver's character Ellen Ripley, featured prominently in the 2014 video game Alien Isolation. In that game, the younger Ripley was tasked with uncovering mysteries on a Weyland-Yutani craft called the Sevastopol.

The stakes will be higher for the younger Ripley in this year's release, as the tease includes a promised return to the famed Nostromo, the setting of the very first Alien film in 1979. Saturday's tease suggests that Amanda Ripley will have the first human interaction with anything Nostromo-related in 40 years. (Maybe she will analyze some shards?)

The post's lack of film studio logos suggests this mixed-media launch could skip a theatrical launch, but as of press time, details are incredibly scant. Whatever comes of this project, it will mark the first major entry in the series since 2017's serviceable film Alien Covenant.











Update, 1/7: Annnnnd the first salvo in this "read, watch, play" promotion is a smartphone game, launching on January 24.

Alien: Blackout appeared on iOS and Android storefronts on Monday in a "pre-register" state. Sadly, its description and screenshots don't necessarily answer how the game will play, beyond one clear directive: "remotely guiding Amanda Ripley's crew through increasingly challenging tasks using only the station’s emergency systems."

The listing includes 3D-rendered interiors of a spaceship, along with a few security-camera systems that players can tap through. It's unclear whether we should expect natively rendered 3D imagery in the game, though the game's required specs seem pretty slim; on iPhone and iPad, the only listed requirement is iOS 8.0, which supports quite a few legacy devices. From a quick glance, the gameplay seems to land somewhere between the complicated strategy of FTL and the brazenly simple camera-swapping tricks of Night Trap.

In good news, at least, the iOS listing has revealed a flat pricing structure of $5 USD as opposed to any suggestion of microtransactions—which gives this Alien smartphone game one leg up above Blizzard's late-2018 reveal of a new Diablo game coming exclusively to smartphone platforms. The latter game's pricing structure has not yet been confirmed, but its developers at NetEase have a history with microtransaction-loaded dungeon crawlers.

According to a FoxNext announcement, this is the first of "more entries" coming from "a wide range of storytellers and innovators" relating to the character Amanda Ripley. The announcement didn't clarify any more information on that front, including whether to expect films, animated series, comics, or other products.

This new information did offer a confirmation of another video game, though: "a massively multiplayer online shooter set in the Alien cinematic universe for consoles and PC." Development duties for that game are being handled by Cold Iron Studios, a studio wholly owned by 20th Century Fox, and the company has been publicly hiring for this game for some time. No release window or other details about that game were included in Monday's news.

Listing image by 20th Century Fox