Square Enix and People Can Fly, maker of 'Bulletstorm,' partner for new game

By Gabe Gurwin June 1, 2017

Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition Announce Trailer

People Can Fly, the Polish developer responsible for Gears of War: Judgment and the cult-hit shooter

Recommended Videos

Bulletstorm, has partnered with publisher Square Enix for the development of a new “high-end” game.

The project has not been described in great detail yet, but it will be available for both consoles and PC. The official announcement stated that Square Enix and People Can Fly will “work together to develop” the game, which suggests that one of Square Enix’ internal teams could also be involved in the project.

“We’re building a game we all want to play which will be the perfect addition to our portfolio,” said Square Enix London Studios’ head Lee Singleton.

The project will not be featured at E3 this year, and it still appears to be in its infancy — People Can Fly is currently hiring programmers and artists to bolster its team.

People Can Fly was previously a subsidiary of Epic Games, the studio behind the Unreal engine and the original Gears of War trilogy — the two studios co-developed Judgment. In 2015, People Can Fly regained its independence and took with it the rights to Bulletstorm. Gearbox Software recently published a remastered version titled Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC. The new version includes better textures and audio, 4K support for PC and PS4 Pro, and smoother frame rates, and it’s bundled with all DLC content released for the original game. A Duke Nukem add-on is also available, for some reason.

Square Enix’ decision to partner with an outside studio on a project could be a sign of things to come. The publisher saw unexpectedly high sales for Nier: Automata, developed by PlatinumGames, and it recently announced the decision to part ways with IO Interactive following disappointing figures for Hitman. It’s unclear if development on the game’s second season will still continue.

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Gabe Gurwin has been playing games since 1997, beginning with the N64 and the Super Nintendo. He began his journalism career…

Gaming

The next game from the Outriders studio loses Take-Two as its publisher

Outriders

Outriders developer People Can Fly and publisher Take-Two Interactive have parted ways with each other on Project Dagger, a new action-adventure game. The game has been in development for the past two years. People Can Fly will also retain the rights to Project Dagger and will continue working on it. Whether the game will find another publisher or be self-published is up in the air right now.

"I assume we will part on good terms, and I don’t see reasons why we couldn’t work with Take-Two on some other project in the future," says People Can Fly Ceo Sebastian Wojciechowski in a statement.

Gaming

Embracer fully acquires former Square Enix western studios

the-best-stealth-games-of-all-time

The acquisition of Square Enix's western studios and their IP by Embracer Group has been approved, completing the acquisition of the major studios and over 50 IPs including Tomb Raider and Deus Ex.

While the purchase was announced in May, the conditions and approvals for the deal were not finalized until August 26, fully completing the transaction as detailed on Embracer's official site. The newly acquired studios are set to form Embracer's 12th operative group led by Phil Rogers. Further details, likely in regards to the name of this operative group and a new name for Square Enix Montreal, are expected at a later date.

Gaming

Square Enix’s Avatar: The Last Airbender mobile game soft-launches today

Square Enix London Mobile and Nickelodeon have announced the soft launch of Avatar: Generations, a new free-to-play RPG mobile game based on the hit anime Avatar: The Last Airbender. Players in Canada, Denmark, South Africa, and Sweden will be able to play the game on Android and iOS starting today, and it will be expanded to other territories in the following months.

Avatar: Generations is being developed by Canada-based studio Navigator Games, and it expands upon the Avatar franchise and puts players in the shoes of Aang, Katara, Sokka, and other fan-favorite characters as they travel around the world to help Aang fulfill his destiny of mastering all four elements and being the Avatar. As the title suggests, the game will have expansions focusing on Avatar Kyoshi, Roku, Korra, and others across the timelines of the Four Nations.