Say Hello to a New Name in Gaming
Veterans from Techland – the publisher and developer behind hit games like Dead Island and Dying Light – have founded Untold Studios, a new game publisher which will focus on games with unique stories to tell, whether on a gameplay or a narrative level. Untold Stories will also have focus on transparency, ensuring that both gamers and developers are treated fairly and cutting out the shady details that have historically caused issues with game development.
“Being selective and only focusing on 1 or 2 games at time ensures our devs are taken care of both during and after production and not feel like they’re just another name among 10 others we’re juggling. We also want them to feel they’re allowed to focus on putting their game out where they are wanted. Times have changed significantly in how best to put a game out and that also means some platforms are better than others for certain games. It just doesn’t make sense to force devs to be everywhere to try to maximise exposure,”said Maciej Łączny.
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The publisher will focus on single-player experiences, and so far have announced two games: The Hong Kong Massacre – a top-down John Woo style shooter coming to the Switch – and Beautiful Desolation – a 2D isometric adventure game coming to the PS4 and Switch. Both games have previously been published, but Untold Stories will be bringing them to new consoles – and if they share the core philosophies that the new publisher plan to abide by going forward, that might tell us what to expect going forward. Additionally, Untold Stories are currently working on an unnamed third title for the PC and console.
With society focusing more and more on the ethical treatment of workers, it’s definitely heartening to see at least one publisher focusing on ensuring fair working conditions, with Łączny stating “Devs need to understand we don’t want the rights to your IP. We don’t want revenue shares where you end up screwed. And we’ll never expect you to release something that isn’t ready and just wrecks your studio’s reputation.” This means that not only will Untold Stories be an attractive prospect for developers, players can be sure that the final product won’t be rushed into production.
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Source: Press Release