The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

The Astronauts · September 25, 2014 · Mystery, Atmospheric, Detective, Walking Simulator, Exploration

Buy The Vanishing of Ethan Carter from Gameseal at $3.77 — the cheapest of 18 stores we compare.

PC
Very Positive88% · 8,97582Metacritic
Best price 54 Good deal
$3.77-80%
lowest tracked $1.99
Gameseal Buy at Gameseal

Prices last checked

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Where to buy The Vanishing of Ethan Carter — official stores

GOG
GOG
Standard Edition · DRM-Free
-80%
$3.99
$19.99
Buy
WinGameStore
WinGameStore
Standard Edition · Steam
-25%
$14.99
$19.99
Buy
GameBillet
GameBillet
Standard Edition · Steam
-17%
$16.57
$19.99
Buy
GamesPlanet
GamesPlanet
Standard Edition · Steam
-11%
$17.79
$19.99
Buy
GamersGate
GamersGate
Standard Edition · Steam
-10%
$17.99
$19.99
Buy
GreenManGaming
Standard Edition · Steam
$19.99
Buy
Steam
Steam
Standard Edition · Steam
$19.99
Buy
Humble Store
Humble Store
Standard Edition · Steam
$19.99
Buy
Epic Game Store
Epic Game Store
Standard Edition · Epic Games
$19.99
Buy
DLGamer
DLGamer
Standard Edition · Steam
$19.99
Buy

Cheapest The Vanishing of Ethan Carter keys — keyshops

Keyshops are third-party marketplaces — keys are resold and can be region-locked or a different edition. Check the listing's region & edition before buying.

Driffle INC
Standard Edition · Steam
$3.99
Buy
Gameseal
Standard Edition · Steam
$3.77
Buy
Eneba
Standard Edition · Steam
$3.79
Buy
Loaded
Standard Edition · Steam
-77%
$4.49
$19.89
Buy
CJS CD Keys
CJS CD Keys
Standard Edition · Steam
$4.64
Buy

Some store links are affiliate links — playze may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It never changes the price you pay, and the cheapest option is always shown in the Best price box above.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter price by region

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter costs £2.99 in the United Kingdom, €3.25 in Europe (EUR), $3.77 in the United States, $3.99 in Georgia (USD), A$4.59 in Australia, CA$5.45 in Canada, NZ$5.92 in New Zealand, R$7.39 in Brazil and zł12.79 in Poland right now.

Cheapest The Vanishing of Ethan Carter offer in each region, in local currency
RegionBest priceOfficial storeKey shopStores
United Kingdom £2.99 −80% £2.99 £3.01 16
Europe (EUR) €3.25 −80% €3.79 €3.25 18
United Statesyour region $3.77 −80% $3.99 $3.77 18
Georgia (USD) $3.99 −80% $3.99 — 13
Australia A$4.59 −80% A$4.59 — 13
Canada CA$5.45 −80% CA$5.45 — 13
New Zealand NZ$5.92 −80% NZ$5.92 — 13
Brazil R$7.39 −80% R$7.39 R$20.85 15
Poland zł12.79 −80% zł12.79 zł15.34 15

Each row is a real price from that region's own stores, not a currency conversion, so the figures are not directly comparable. Switch regions in the header to shop the one you buy in.

Trailers & screenshots

Watch the The Vanishing of Ethan Carter trailer →

About The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

✦ AI summary

You play as occult detective Paul Prospero investigating a missing boy and a trail of murders in Red Creek Valley, using supernatural abilities to communicate with the dead and uncover dark secrets. This atmospheric first-person mystery focuses entirely on exploration and discovery with no combat, blending weird fiction horror with detective noir storytelling.

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE: By purchasing the game, you actually get two games now: 1) The original The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, 2) The Unreal Engine 4 remaster called The Vanishing of Ethan Carter Redux. Please see The Astronauts website for details.
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is a first-person story-driven mystery game that focuses entirely on exploration and discovery. It contains no combat or explosions of any kind. If our game leaves any scars, we hope you won’t be able to see them.

You play the game as Paul Prospero, an occult-minded detective who receives a disturbing letter from Ethan Carter. Realizing the boy is in grave danger, Paul arrives at Ethan’s home of Red Creek Valley, where things turn out to be even worse than he imagined. Ethan has vanished in the wake of a brutal murder, which Paul quickly discerns might not be the only local murder worth looking into.

Inspired by the weird fiction (and other tales of the macabre) from the early twentieth century, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter aims to significantly evolve immersive storytelling in games. While it features a private detective and quite a few mental challenges, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is not an especially puzzle-ridden game. Our focus is on atmosphere, mood, and the essential humanity of our characters.

Still, the discoveries won’t happen on their own, or without your help. Using both Paul’s supernatural skill of being able to communicate with the dead, and your own powers of observation, you will discover the mystery behind a trail of corpses, the roots of a dark ancient force lurking in Red Creek Valley, and the fate of a missing boy.

Key Features

  • Explore and interact with the beautiful yet ominous world of Red Creek Valley, which was created with the use of revolutionary photogrammetry technology that allows for nearly photorealistic environments.
  • Communicate with the dead and see how they died in order to gather clues that help you piece together the truth behind Ethan’s disappearance -- and the fate of his family.
  • Experience, in non-linear fashion, a story that combines the pleasures of pulp, private eye, and horror fiction, all of it inspired by writers such as Raymond Chandler, Algernon Blackwood, Stefan Grabinski, and H. P. Lovecraft.
  • Conduct the investigation on your own terms and at your own pace. Although there are a few scary bits in the game, players will have no need for sedatives. Our game is less about terror and more about clammy unease.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter — game info

Platforms
Windows
Steam Deck
Verified
Player modes
Single-player
Controller
Full controller support
PC Game Pass
Not included

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter in the rankings

DLC & expansions

🎁 Complete the collection

Base game + 1 of 1 DLC at today's best prices.

$5.76
to own everything

What Steam players say

Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.

Not recommended Aug 19, 2026
A collection of illogical "happenings" that require you to wonder endlessly around a fairly large space just waiting to come across something that happens. Then when it does, you have no idea what the connection is, or what to do next. A pretentious, pointless waste of time. Coupled with auto-save only which appear to be fairly widely spaced so you loose any progress, and frequent glitches and stalls.
6 found this helpful
Not recommended Aug 1, 2026
I have no idea what to do or what's going on. Needs instructions/directions as the areas can be big.
2 found this helpful
Recommended Aug 29, 2026
[h1] ★★★★★ [/h1] [h2] ✦ 𝟓/𝟓 ✦ [/h2] [h3] A quiet little mystery that stays with you. [/h3] ༺━━━━━━━━━━✦━━━━━━━━━━༻ ✦ [b]Sometimes, less is more[/b] ✦ ◆ [b]The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is technically just a walking simulator, but somehow it completely got me.[/b] I can absolutely see why this type of game won't be for everyone, but I genuinely loved my time with it. ◆ Red Creek Valley is the real star of the game. On the surface, it's just a beautiful, peaceful place surrounded by nature, but there's always this feeling that something is wrong. Something is hiding beneath that peaceful surface. Something that Paul Prospero calls [i]"the sleeping evil."[/i] The atmosphere does a fantastic job of making you want to keep exploring just to find out what happened. ༺━━━━━━━━━━✦━━━━━━━━━━༻ ✦ [b]Simple, short, and strangely charming[/b] ✦ ◆ The game itself is quite simple, short and linear, and there's not a huge amount of gameplay to speak of. But honestly, [b]I don't think it needed much more.[/b] It has a certain charm that's difficult to explain. The combination of exploration, mystery, atmosphere and that almost dreamlike setting just clicked with me, and I had a genuinely g…
1 found this helpful
Not recommended Aug 29, 2026
Boring
Recommended Aug 13, 2026
okay ig
Recommended Aug 10, 2026
Nice.

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