Former The Division, Hitman Developers Form New Studio, Working On ‘Cult Classic’ IP

It’s always great to see new studios surface in this industry, building upon some unique ideas [...]

The Division

It's always great to see new studios surface in this industry, building upon some unique ideas and promising excellent games for the future. And that's exactly what Sharkmob wants to do.

This new studio was put together a little while back, and features a number of veterans that worked on Ubisoft's The Division, as well as Hitman.

This includes former Massive CEO and executive producer Fredrik Rundqvist, as well as technical director Anders Holmquist, who worked on the Snowdrop game engine; IP director Martin Hultberg; Division game director, producer and technical director Petter Mannerfelt; and art director for both Hitman and Division, Rodrigo Cortes.

While speaking with GamesBeat, Rundqvist noted, "I'm not sure, but I think this is fairly unusual about Sharkmob, which is that we have five guys who've done games for ten to twelve years together, leaving together to start something new."

He continued, "We felt more safe working together again than we would have if we were just going off on our own. If you take the five of us, I don't think it's exaggerating that the five of us cover a 360 view of everything you need to know to start a company, start a studio, make a game, create an IP, be sure about technology, art direction, game direction, all that stuff."

The company has already promised that it's working on something exciting, in the form of a new licensed multiplayer game for PC first, and then console – and it's based on a "cult classic" IP, with plans to develop further into a franchise. It didn't divulge which "cult classic" this is, though.

"We're not really interested in making a more traditional single-player type of game," Rundqvist. "What we play privately, the kind of games we love, are very social, very competitive, always multiplayer. The more the merrier.

"Of course, in our opinion, the pure mechanics of that are not interesting if you don't have the right IP, the right setting, the right fantasy to get people really excited about the game mechanics we provide. I guess that also gives you a hint as to what kind of game we're making."

We'll keep tabs on this project and see what the company has to announce in the future.

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