Poland’s horror king Bloober Team has announced Saw: Genesis as an online co-op game coming for Steam on the PC this year.
The game is a cooperative asymmetrical online horror game, with four players where three prisoner players fight against one evildoer known as the Judge. It is set in the early 20th century (1920, just after WWI), nearly 100 years before the events of the Saw films.
Bloober Team has positioned itself as the publisher and developer of horror games, and it has had a string of high-profile announcements lately. So far, Bloober Team has announced it is working on six announced games. They include Star Trek: Shadow Frontier, Saw: Genesis, Cronos: Lazarus (DLC), Layers of Fear, Project H, Project M and more unannounced games. The company’s past games include Silent Hill 2 Remake, Cronos: The New Dawn, Layers of Fear 1 and 2, The Medium, Observer, Blair Witch and Brawl.
Developed by Broken Mirror Games (Bloober’s label for co-developed games) and Anshar Studios, Saw: Genesis has a license from Lionsgate and it will be published by Bloober Team. It’s coming out as early access on Steam in the fall of 2026.
Players will step into the unforgiving world of Saw and experience its terrifying trials firsthand. You can play as the Judge – a precursor to Jigsaw – and orchestrate the rehabilitation of prisoners through diabolical tests and psychological manipulation. Or take the role of one of three Accused, fighting to survive through teamwork, strategy, and sacrifice. The Judge’s psychological games serve to inspire Jigsaw in later years.
Key Features:
Choose your role – Play as the Judge or the Accused; each role’s experience will be very different.
Play as one of the Accused – Three characters have been kidnapped by the Judge and find themselves in a strange new environment, where only collaboration can give them a chance to escape.
Play as the Judge – Shaped by his experiences with war, the Judge is dedicated to rehabilitating humanity through pain and sacrifice. Your goal isn’t simply to kill. It’s to make them choose between life and limbs. Live or die.
Choose wisely – Make the choice. Pay the price. Let the game begin. SAW: Genesis is built for short, intense matches where the odds between the two parties are even, with no two trials playing out the same.
World and setting
The story of Saw: Genesis is set in 1920s England. In the aftermath of the First World War, the country was filled with the joy of victory and the hope of lasting peace. Yet for many, the horrors of war could not be forgotten. The images witnessed in field hospitals and on the battlefields continued to haunt countless souls.
Among them were those who emerged from the war carrying profound psychological wounds. Driven by distorted notions of redemption and healing, they sought to alleviate suffering through methods that ultimately caused even greater harm.
Core Gameplay Loop
Saw: Genesis is a 3v1 cooperative multiplayer horror game. Three Accused must work together to outsmart the Judge in fast-paced escape room-like encounters where every second counts. There’s a mastermind and targets.
The Accused are dropped into a shifting maze where routes change, plans fall apart, and every mistake gives the Judge more control. Their greatest advantage is their strength in numbers and their ability to work together.
While physically vulnerable, the Judge commands an accomplice who can be summoned to drag an Accused into a rehabilitation trap. The Judge also has exclusive access to hidden corridors, a noise-detection map, hallucinogenic bombs, and paralyzing toxins that can be used to distract and immobilize opponents.
Each encounter takes ten to 15 minutes.
Visual & Audio Style
The visual style of SAW: Genesis was crafted to reflect the disturbing mindset of its main antagonist, the Judge. Locations such as the orphanage draw heavily from traditional British architecture, capturing the bleak atmosphere of post–First World War England and the character of early 20th-century design.
The audio design was created to intensify the game’s repressive horror atmosphere, enhancing both the environmental storytelling and the psychological tension of each encounter.
As far as monetization, the game will not use pay-to-win monetization.
Subscribe if you want to participate in the Alpha playtest.
In the trailer, the voice of Jigsaw says of the Judge’s legacy, “They call you a monster, but I call you a prophet. Pain is our only true path to redemption. It strips away the lies that people tell themselves. Only then do they get to see what really makes them tick. A sacrifice must always be paid in blood. Live or die. Your book bound in blood inspires those who are worthy. The
spiral bleeds ever deeper. Let the games begin.”
“You may play as one of three so-called Accused,” said one of the development leaders in a press briefing. “You must work together, escape the maze, and try to outmaneuver the Judge.”
The developer added, “On the other hand, you may play as the Judge. He is more a figure resembling the original Jigsaw, whom we know from the from the movie, so he is more like a strategic mind.”
One of the reasons it is set after World War I is that the team wanted this game to be raw, very physical.
“We wanted to grasp the roots of violence that are present in the Saw brand,” the developer said.
The team worked closely with Lionsgate, which owns the Saw movie franchise, on the narrative. The title will be a premium game. The Saw franchise has generated more than $1 billion at the box office.
The dev said the Judge is a Jigsaw-like character, the strategic mastermind. The Accused are the survivors and they seek to capture the desperation of being hunted.
“If you were in a trap, would you sacrifice or would you not,” the developer said.
The Accused are under constant pressure of time, and they need to explore to find tools, find consumables that allow them to get through it, go through challenges, activate engines, and ultimately activate the exit that they can escape through.