Jay Wilson, who worked at Blizzard for 10 years, most notably as game director for Diablo 3, has started a new studio called Gas Giant Games. The studio's creative director, Julian Love, is also a "Diablo" experience, from Diablo 3 to Diablo: Immortal and Diablo 4.
More precisely, according to Wilson, it is "an action RPG with survival elements," and apparently deciding on the concept was no easy task.
"Each of our concepts had to pass the test of being not only a good experience to build, but also a great game to play," Wilson said in his announcement (opens in new tab). We are very proud of what we have achieved," Wilson said in his announcement (opens in new tab). 'We all agreed that we had found the game we needed to build.'
"The development team's time is precious and we can't justify spending it on anything other than the game we want to make. And we want to make this game.
The survival RPG is in development for PC and consoles, with "mobile platforms under evaluation."
Wilson and company will head to GDC in San Francisco next week to show the game to potential investors and publishers, but they are not ready to release it to the public yet. For now, Wilson will only announce that the game will offer "insane, visceral combat, an engaging progression system, and a unique survival experience.
"Visceral combat" may be the most overused game descriptor in history. Diablo 3's reputation is mixed among fans of the series, but when I finally played it in the post-Error 37 and post-Auction House era, I enjoyed it immensely. Wilson is also well known among RTS fans, with credits in "Homeworld 2," "Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War," "Company of Heroes," and "StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty." He also served as lead designer on "World of Warcraft": Legion,
although Gas Giant Games also boasts talent from "Overwatch," "Dragon Age 2," "Space Marine," "Cyberpunk 2077" and other games, All of the other studios' announcements seem to contain similar declarations of big game legacy, making it difficult to know what to take from them.
Back in Blizzard land, the Diablo 4 beta weekend is coming up this month and the game is expected to be released in June. We don't know much about it, but Blizzard is developing its own survival game as well.
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