From Metal Music to Video Games
Industry behemoth Epic Games has been partnering with smaller studios left, right and center. Following their partnership with Remedy Entertainment, the studio behind the recent Alan Wake Remastered (and rumoured Alan Wake 2,) former indie developer Playdead who created Inside and Limbo, as well as genDESIGN who is headed by creator of Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and Last Guardian, Fumito Ueda, Epic announced 2 new partnerships this morning. Spry Fox, creators of Cozy Grove as well as Eyes Out which is the new studio founded by Spec Ops: The Line creative director Cory Davis and Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck.
We have very little information on the new games from each of these studios, being restricted to only having a sentence description of each. Spry Fox is poised to build a “multiplatform nonviolent persistent multiplayer title.” Persistent multiplayer is an interesting concept that hasn’t been explored in the world of gaming as the most notable inclusion was in 2019’s Death Stranding, which used the persistent multiplayer design model to incorporate other players’ buildings into your game world. It will be interesting to see how the small studio incorporates it into their game. Given their last title Cozy Grove was a life-sim, we could theorize that they’ll incorporate a persistent world into a similar style of game. That being said, this is nothing more than speculation.
Eyes Out’s first game is rumoured to be a “single-player, immersive cosmic horror game.” Given Cory Davis’ hit game Spec Ops: The Line covered such dark and disturbing content so elegantly and Robin Finck is famous for his contributions to the eerie Quake soundtrack, this game should be one to remember. We’re looking forward to seeing what these studios have in store, given the massive resources Epic has to offer.
For now, keep an eye on COGconnected for more information on these new titles and studios as their projects develop.