The Evil Within 3 hasn't been announced, but the first indicator of its existence seems to be a very subtle Easter egg hidden in Tango Gameworks' newest release, Hi-Fi Rush.
Hi-Fi Rush seems to be full of references to The Evil Within, but a newly uncovered Easter egg is the first to seemingly tease a new entry in the series. 12DOVE was tipped off to the extremely subtle reference by an eagle-eyed reader, and I've since verified it myself.
During the cinematic preceding Track 11: The Needle Drop, Chai and company are taking an elevator ride to meet Kale, the CEO of the Vandelay Corporation and the game's final boss. Just as the elevator reaches its destination, you get a split-second look at a screen that shows you've arrived at floor 776. At the bottom of the screen in small print is a feed with the weather and news. Next to "news" reads: "Sequel to popular survival horror franchise anounced [sic]." Here's a time stamp from a popular YouTube playthrough of the game in case you want to see for yourself. You can also see a screenshot of the tease here:
This is far from confirmation of The Evil Within 3, but it's arguably the best piece of evidence we've found so far that a sequel is in the works. The only games Tango has developed outside of The Evil Within and Hi-Fi Rush are the mobile game Hero Dice and Ghostwire: Tokyo, which both isn't a franchise and isn't a survival horror game, making The Evil Within the only plausible candidate for what this Easter egg is referencing.
Almost a year ago to the day, GameSpot revealed that Ghostwire: Tokyo actually began life as The Evil Within 3 but eventually became its own thing due to the dramatically different direction it went during development. That's another indicator that Tango at least once intended to make a sequel to 2017's The Evil Within 2, but it remains to be seen with certainty whether one will ever surface.
Check out our interview with Hi-Fi Rush director John Johanas to find out how Tango managed to shadow drop a Bethesda hit five years in the making.
