How one of PS5’s worst‑reviewed exclusives is already getting a sequel, and what that reveals about niche AA horror on console and PC.
When TeamKill Media quietly tweeted that it was “thrilled to announce” Code UltraViolet, a direct follow up to its dino horror shooter Code Violet, the reaction from most corners of the industry press was disbelief. Here was a game sitting near the very bottom of PS5’s Metacritic rankings, called “a broken survival horror mess” and “a bad game” by major outlets, already being positioned as the foundation of a franchise.
Yet the studio described Code Violet’s launch as an “overwhelming success” and framed Code UltraViolet as simply “the next chapter of Violet’s story.” That disconnect between critical reception and developer confidence is not just a strange PR beat. It is a small but telling example of how niche AA horror can survive, and sometimes thrive, on modern platforms even when the review averages look disastrous.
A critical punching bag, a cult curiosity
Released on PS5 in early January 2026, Code Violet was pitched as a spiritual successor to Dino Crisis: third person action horror with an emphasis on tense encounters against prehistoric creatures, light stealth and resource management, and a pulpy sci fi plot about time displacement and corporate experimentation. On paper, it slotted neatly into a hunger for mid budget horror that sits between polished indies and Capcom’s premium remakes.
In practice, critics were brutal. Metacritic’s PS5 page settled around the low 30s from critics and the low single digits from users. OpenCritic’s snapshot told a similar story, categorizing the release as “weak” with few, if any, recommendations. Eurogamer, GamingBolt, Push Square, Noisy Pixel and others all highlighted the same failings: stiff combat, clumsy encounters with the dinosaur AI, technical problems, and presentation choices that could veer from striking to unintentionally comic in a single scene.
IGN’s review opened with the blunt verdict that Code Violet is “a bad game,” while Push Square likened it to a goofball shooter that could not decide if it wanted to be camp or serious horror. Several outlets noted that the studio’s last game, Quantum Error, had already struggled with scope versus budget, and that Code Violet felt like a repeat of those mistakes.
On user facing platforms the picture looked only slightly more nuanced. The PS5 store rating hovered under 3 out of 5 at the time of the sequel’s announcement, with a near perfect split between one star “refund this” reviews and five star defenders praising its atmosphere, protagonist and throwback pacing. Metacritic user reviews were similarly polarized, often less about the game itself and more about what it represented to players in the never ending friction between AA, indie and triple A expectations.
That antagonistic reception is why sites like Push Square, Eurogamer and others framed the sequel reveal as a kind of punchline. How could a game so widely panned already be treated as a budding series?
“Overwhelming success” from the studio’s view
The answer comes from a completely different metric. In the same social posts where TeamKill announced Code UltraViolet, the studio called Code Violet an “overwhelming success” and thanked players for making it the team’s “biggest launch to date.” Separate coverage at sites like Twisted Voxel echoed that framing, noting that within the studio’s own catalog Code Violet had apparently outperformed earlier efforts.
There is a crucial context here: this is not a Sony funded marquee exclusive from a 300 person studio. TeamKill is a small independent developer operating in the AA and “indie with publisher scale” space. The definition of success for a game like Code Violet is very different from what The Last of Us Part III or Resident Evil 10 would need to hit.
At a mid tier price point and built around largely reusable systems and assets, the game does not need millions of copies sold to justify continued work in the same universe. It needs to recoup production and marketing spend, keep the team employed, and ideally build a small but monetizable audience that will show up again if the word of mouth improves next time.
If you accept that framing, a pattern emerges that explains why TeamKill is so bullish despite the review scores:
The studio talks about “overwhelming success” relative to its previous titles, not relative to the broader PS5 slate.
The PS Store data suggests that for every player who hated the game, another loved it, creating a small cult following that values exactly the elements critics despised: clunky charm, campy writing, and unapologetically fan service heavy character design.
Even negative coverage has given Code Violet more mindshare than most comparable AA horror projects launching into the same window.
The result is brand awareness. Those Eurogamer and Push Square headlines about a “terrible PS5 dino shooter already getting a sequel” double as free marketing. For a studio at this scale, being one of the “worst reviewed games on PS5” is still better than being completely invisible.
What Code UltraViolet is promising so far
The reveal of Code UltraViolet itself has been light on hard detail but heavy on positioning. TeamKill describes it as Violet Sinclair’s next chapter, keeping the same protagonist and presumably the same core blend of third person shooting and survival horror structure.
The studio’s messaging across social channels and interviews aggregated by sites like GamingBolt and TechRaptor hints at a few priorities:
They refer to “continuing Violet’s story,” implying a direct narrative continuation rather than a soft reboot.
They talk about “learning from feedback” and wanting to deliver “the vision we know Code Violet can be,” signaling that many underlying ideas, from dinosaur combat to the Aion facility setting, will return but with more polish.
They characterize the sequel as a “fuller realization” of the same concept, language that often appears when a team wants to reuse its existing pipelines and content while making targeted fixes in combat, pacing and presentation.
Platforms have not been firmly reconfirmed, but the original released on PS5 first with talk of PC after launch, and coverage of the sequel has repeatedly mentioned PS5 and PC as the likely targets. There is no indication this is suddenly a cross gen project or expanding to Switch like hardware.
In short, Code UltraViolet sounds less like a radical reinvention and more like an attempt to iterate within the same creative box, betting that a mix of cult interest, curiosity from onlookers and legitimately improved execution will be enough to turn a commercial “overwhelming success” with a reputational black eye into something closer to a proper win.
The economics of niche AA horror on PS5 and PC
The disconnect between Code Violet’s review averages and its sequel friendly performance is not unique. Over the last decade, mid budget horror has repeatedly shown that there is room for games which critics dislike but a specific audience hungrily supports.
From a business perspective, several realities are at work here.
First, the survival horror audience on console and PC is both loyal and underserved. Resident Evil, Dead Space and occasionally Silent Hill soak up the blockbuster attention, but those releases are spaced years apart and carry a glossy, expensive tone that leaves room for something scrappier and weirder. A Dino Crisis styled project on modern hardware has inherent appeal even before anyone reads a review. That desire helped Code Violet secure day one curiosity purchases despite being an unproven AA title.
Second, the PS5 marketplace makes it relatively easy for smaller studios to achieve visibility at launch if they can secure a storefront highlight or be one of the very few new horror releases in a given week. Code Violet had the advantage of being one of the first notable PS5 exclusives of 2026, which meant social feeds and store banners featured it regardless of its eventual reception. Once those initial sales rolled in, the long tail became less critical for recouping the budget.
Third, development economics at AA scale fundamentally change what “failure” looks like. A large publisher investing tens or hundreds of millions of dollars into a project cannot afford mid tier performance, let alone overwhelmingly negative sentiment. A smaller studio self publishing or operating with a modest budget can survive a critical flop as long as the audience is big enough and engaged enough. That is especially true when a significant chunk of the work, from engine tech to art pipelines, can be reused for a sequel.
By announcing Code UltraViolet quickly, TeamKill sends two messages. Externally, it reassures the core fans who did like Code Violet that their investment in the world and characters will be rewarded, and invites skeptics to keep an open mind for a second attempt. Internally and to potential partners, it signals stability: this is not a one and done disaster but the start of a viable brand.
Finally, platforms like PC give mid budget horror developers a potential second life, even when the console debut is rocky. If Code UltraViolet ships on PS5 and PC in a closer window, the studio can lean into a broader mod friendly and streamer driven ecosystem that has historically been kinder to flawed but entertaining horror games than to pristine but generic ones.
What this means for AA horror going forward
For the industry, the strange case of Code Violet and Code UltraViolet is a reminder that critical conversation and commercial viability do not always align, especially in niche spaces. A game can be the butt of jokes on social media and still do enough numbers to justify another swing, provided its costs are controlled and its audience feels seen.
It is also a case study in how visibility, controversy and a recognizable hook can be almost as useful as glowing praise when it comes to carving out space in crowded storefronts. Plenty of technically better horror games will release on PS5 and PC this year without half the attention that Code Violet has already received, purely because they lack a sharp, meme ready narrative: “the worst reviewed PS5 exclusive is getting a sequel anyway.”
Whether Code UltraViolet can turn that notoriety into something more substantial will depend on how much TeamKill can actually change. Fixing clumsy combat, smoothing out performance problems and tightening the tone without sanding away the eccentricities that drew a small cult to the first game is a difficult balancing act. If they pull it off, the series could become an example of how AA horror can grow across multiple entries even in the face of hostile reviews. If they do not, Code Violet may remain best known as a cautionary tale about ambition, marketing and the gulf between what the industry values and what a small but passionate audience will pay for.
For now, though, the message to fellow AA horror teams is clear. If you control your costs, understand your niche and can hook even a few tens of thousands of players on PS5 and PC, a Metacritic in the 30s does not necessarily mean game over. Sometimes it is simply the rough prologue to the next chapter.