Though developer Supermassive Games considered including couch co-op, it felt that would have taken away from the game’s atmosphere.

The Little Nightmares franchise has always felt like it would be a perfect fit for co-op, given the fact that both games so far have put the spotlight on two core characters each, and though the series has remained exclusively single player so far, the recently-announced Little Nightmares 3 will be changing that- with a significant caveat though.

Though Little Nightmares 3 will have an online co-op option, local co-op won’t be included. Interestingly, that was a conscious decision by the series’ new stewards in Supermassive Games, with the studio feeling that playing the horror title with a friend by your side would detract from the experience.

In a recent interview with GamesRadar, Coralie Feniello – producer on Little Nightmares 3 at publisher Bandai Namco EU – said that co-op was one of the most heavily requested features from series fans, so including it in some form was important. At the same time, however, the developers wanted to stick to the series’ single player core as well.

“Co-op was the most requested feature from our fans, so it was really important for us to give them that,” Feniello said. “I do think that it will add a layer to the game as well, by letting you experience it with a friend. But at the same time, we really want the player to experience it as they want. So that’s why we kept single player, so if you don’t play online co-op you would be able to play with AI with you.”

Supermassive’s Wayne Garland, game director on Little Nightmares 3 went on to add that though local co-op was considered for the horror title, the developer ultimately felt that it would have taken too much away from its “atmosphere and immersion”.

“We’ve been asked questions about online versus couch co-op,” Garland said. “Couch is something that we considered, but again, when you come back to the atmosphere and the immersion that we’re trying to elicit through Little Nightmares, I think it was important for us that we stuck to our online co-op only rather than traditional more party aspects.”

Little Nightmares 3 is due out sometime in 2024 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.