Time-looping Tron: Catalyst in development at Bithell Games
Get with the program.
There's an eye-catching new Tron game in development at Bithell Games - a time-looping isometric action-adventure where your character might get reset, but elements of the world you influence remain changed for your next run.
It's a clever idea by the Bithell Games gang, which previously worked with Disney on narrative puzzler Tron: Identity. Here, story threads familiar to fans of the films and that game combine in a bigger, more intriguing riff on the franchise's world of computer programs.
Tron: Catalyst is set for arrival on PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch in 2025, published by Big Fan Games - a newly-founded subsidiary of Devolver Digital set up to handle its work on established entertainment franchises. Here's a first-look trailer:
Catalyst's story follows Exo, a program who can reset the game's world - in effect, literally resetting the game - after making progress but reaching a dead-end in a particular run (or reaching a literal dead-end if they die). On your next run, you'll begin again but with the previous world state saved, meaning you can unlock shortcuts or influence the world's inhabitants and see those changes stack.
Eurogamer recently saw a brief hands-off demo of the game by Bithell Games founder Mike Bithell, and the project looked slick. As Exo, you can fight groups of enemies by flinging your light disc, sending it ping-ponging around to deal damage. You can also call upon your lightcycle seemingly at any time, to zoom off around what looks to be a relatively large world.
Bithell Games is known for its work on indie darlings such as Thomas Was Alone and Volume, though has recently also partnered with larger companies for work on licensed games, such as the well-received John Wick Hex.
There's nothing more definitive just yet on when we might see Tron: Catalyst arrive, other than a vague 2025 release window. A third Tron film, Tron: Aeres, starring Jared Leto and Jodie Turner-Smith, launches next October, however.