Nightdive Studios, Eidos-Montréal and Atari announced on Monday that Thief: The Dark Project Remastered launches on December 3, 2026. I will admit the first thing I checked was the box. It costs $29.99, or $34.99 for a Deluxe Digital Edition with an art book, the soundtrack and an excerpt from an upcoming novelization. It launches on PC through Steam, the Epic Games Store and GOG, and on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch.
Looking Glass Studios made the original, and Eidos Interactive published it in North America on December 1, 1998. It was a first-person game where the sword was the last resort: you stayed in the shadows and stole things. Thief Gold followed in 1999 with three new missions and reworked versions of the original 12. Looking Glass closed in 2000, the same year Thief II: The Metal Age came out.
That made Thief Gold the version to own, and it is the version this remaster starts from. Nightdive, the studio behind the System Shock 2 and Turok remasters, rebuilt it in its KEX Engine, and the package carries Gold’s missions, content and updates. Nightdive has not said what “remastered” means past the engine. The announcement names no new controls, saves or graphics options, so I would wait for Nightdive’s feature list before calling this the new definitive Thief.
How a fan expansion became official Thief
The bigger news is The Tarnished Mirror, a new campaign included at launch. It comes from the team behind Thief: The Black Parade, a fan expansion released in 2023 by Feuillade Industries. The Tarnished Mirror is set between Thief and Thief II. A simple theft turns into imprisonment and ends in a drowned necropolis built along R'lyeh lines, with new factions and Lovecraftian horror on the way down.
The three companies call a community creation entering official canon "a rare industry moment," and for once the press line is fair. Fan work on a game this old usually stays a download, however good it is. The remaster also runs player-made mods, The Black Parade among them.
Physical editions for PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch 2 are on pre-order now through Atari. The Standard Edition is $29.99, the Steelbook Edition $39.99 and the Deluxe Trapezoid Edition $69.99. That last one recreates the trapezoid big box the 1998 game shipped in, with a printed manual, a Steelbook and a Remaster Diary inside. The physical Switch 2 versions also play on the original Switch.
I already know which edition I am buying, and it is the one that will not fit on the shelf.
