Aerie Digital’s Rock & Roll Roguelike Battle Bands Debuts Today on Steam Early Access
It’s opening night in this wild music fantasy deck-builder, featuring intense co-op campaigns and competitive multiplayer!
PORTLAND, Maine — March 17, 2022 — Let’s rock ‘n roll! Aerie Digital has announced that Battle Bands, the multiplayer deck-building game set in a music fantasy land, is now available for PC via Steam Early Access for $17.99, with a 15% launch discount until March 24. Go solo or take on the world with friends in this amped-up battle-of-the-bands experience. Craft righteous decks, strategize with bandmates, and kit your crew out with the perfect gear to make it to the big time!
Your deck is your instrument in Battle Bands — choose from guitar, bass, keyboard, or drums, then craft your deck with hundreds of unique unlockable cards. Take on roguelike co-op campaigns for up to four players against challenging AI rivals in Tour Mode, and create or join a band with other players in online tournament team play for up to 64 bands with Royale Mode. Customize your group’s look and instruments, deck out your van in style, and hit the stage like a rock star.
Early Access Features:
Legendary Co-op Tour Mode: Full roguelike campaigns with challenging bosses for 1-4 players
Competitive Multiplayer Royale Mode: Real-time online PvP tournaments supporting up to 64 bands with up to four players in each band!
Four Instrument-based Decks, each with 30 levels of unlockable cards
Free Season 1 Backstage Pass with 50 levels of unlockable cosmetic items
Customize your characters, instruments and van in a variety of ways
Early access gives Aerie the opportunity to work together with players to create the best Battle Bands experience, developing iteratively with community feedback. Throughout early access, Battle Bands will expand with new content and customization options toward its official launch.
Aerie Digital is an independent developer and publisher of video games and digital entertainment experiences. Headquartered in Portland, Maine, our team specializes in creating original and innovative entertainment experiences. www.aeriedigital.com
The Wild West and occult collide in this supernatural sequel to the hit turn-based strategy game
Sign up for Hard West 2’s new closed beta, going on now until April 7
AMSTERDAM — March 17, 2022 — Good Shepherd Entertainment and Ice Code Games have revealed Hard West 2, the long-awaited sequel to 2015’s hit turn-based strategy game set in the American Wild West and experienced by over half a million players. Hard West 2 ups the ante in every way, with the unique new Bravado State that delivers a more aggressive approach to combat. The game’s expansive, character-driven story is brought to life by the voice talents of Kevin Conroy (Batman: The Animated Series), Darien Sills-Evans (Days Gone, League of Legends) and Adam Gifford (The Colony, Batman: Hush), plus a score by BAFTA Award winner Jason Graves (Dead Space, Tomb Raider) and story co-written by Origins Awards winner and New York Times bestselling author Matt Forbeck (Deadlands).
Hard West 2 delivers a classic Western world with a supernatural twist, where legends tell of an elusive ghost train with a bounty of gold for the taking. But when first-class con man Gin Carter raids the transport, he discovers this “ghost train” is exactly that! Now Gin must lead a posse of strange outlaws and chase down the Devil across a land touched by darkness, battling forces both living and undead.
Key Features:
SHOW YOUR BRAVADO: Ruthlessly rack up kills to activate the new Bravado State and replenish your Action Points. Rush out of cover, go on the offensive, and chain together stylish kills to extend your streak as you brazenly take down anyone or anything that stands in your way.
SUPERCHARGED POSSE: Unearth mysterious playing cards to build your crew’s poker hands, and kit them out with punchier guns, explosives, trinkets, or just a square meal of beans and whiskey to keep them in top six-shooter shape.
UNNATURAL LEADER: Like it or not, responsibility for your growing posse of gunslinging outlaws, teleporting witches, and other mysterious beings lands at your boot-clad feet. But be careful who you listen to and what you ask of them. The right choices lead to more Loyalty Points and new skills for those closest to you, but choosing poorly will test their commitment to your cause.
SHOOTOUTS ON THE MOVE: With projectiles of lead and witchcraft, Hard West 2’s turn-based combat happens in dynamically shifting environments, keeping your brain as busy as your trigger finger. Let your Western imagination run wild, from horseback chases to tense train holdups, as you hone your strategic skills to a fine edge.
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UNDEAD: Folk tales of the far West collide with the darkness of the occult in an unforgiving land riddled with as many demons as bullets.
CONQUER THE DARK FRONTIER: Explore the far reaches of the Wild West in a desperate fight to save your soul. Discover more about your posse as you wander the lands, from snow-covered vistas to frontier towns struggling to survive in a merciless world. Make brutal choices and learn to live with the gruesome consequences.
Hard West 2 is expected to launch this year on PC. The game is available to wishlist now on Steam. Visit www.hardwestgame.com to sign up for the game’s closed beta, going on now through April 7, and join the community on Facebook, Discord and Reddit.
About Good Shepherd Entertainment
Good Shepherd Entertainment is an award-winning video game publisher dedicated to creating long-term partnerships that create high-caliber, high-quality entertainment. Good Shepherd has established a strong global presence, having developed, published and marketed dozens of hits across multiple platforms, such as Monster Train, the Transport Fever series, Phantom Doctrine, Hard West, and the critically acclaimed John Wick Hex.
Drawing on decades of experience, Good Shepherd offers their know-how and network of award-winning writers, musicians and creative powerhouses, as well as access to pop-culture IPs. www.GoodShepherd.games
About Ice Code Games
Ice Code Games is a Polish indie game development studio based in Warsaw. Since its conception, it has developed and published several games, including a cyberpunk RTS about cults. It recently made its way to the Polish stock market and is working on several tools for game developers. Ice Code Games is made up of a veteran team of professionals with experience producing games ranging from indie to AAA. https://IceCode.games
The Closed Beta for Stunlock Studios’ anticipated Vampire Survival Game kick-offs March 23th.
Skövde, Sweden – March 17, 2022 –V Rising, the upcoming open-world vampire survival game from Stunlock Studios, is entering Closed Beta on March 23th. The first test session will run for one week, giving invited players a chance to build castles, hunt for blood, and explore the gothic world of Vardoran ahead of the game’s Early Access launch. The Closed Beta will allow for solo or co-op playthroughs as you fight against bandits, mystical creatures, and the light-wielding Church of Luminance in thrilling skillshot-based combat. On PvP servers, the addition of player versus player conflicts will add an extra deadly challenge to the equation.
More information on V Rising: Survive as a newly awakened vampire in a world ruled by humans and rise to become the next Dracula. Feed on blood to gain new powers, hide from the scorching sun, and engage in real-time PvE and PvP combat set in a dark fantasy realm. Raise your castle and invite friends to join as you explore a vast open-world, pillage villages, skirmish with bandits, and delve into the lairs of supernatural beasts. Attack other players’ castles, or become a diplomat in a game of blood, power, and betrayal.
About Stunlock Studios Stunlock Studios is one of the leading independent Swedish game developers in Skövde and most known for arena brawler Battlerite. Since the launch of Battlerite, more than 6 million unique players have tried their luck in the arena, shooting Battlerite up to the peak of the ‘top-selling’ free-to-play games on Steam on several occasions. With a passion for multiplayer action games, the studio crafts ground breaking and community-driven games, always with their players in mind.
Live the corporation-controlled future of your dreams later this year with the new game from the makers of Night Call
STOCKHOLM – March 17, 2022 – MONKEY MOON, the developers of Night Call, and Raw Fury have released the official reveal trailer for Flat Eye, a resource management sim set in a very possible near future that plays with the personal stories of your returning customers. Experience the joy of managing your own Flat Eye™ location, the world’s number one destination for gas and all your retail needs, in this story-rich game that promises to be thought-provoking with a little levity to balance out the despair.
As the manager of Flat Eye, a subsidiary of the Eye Life Corporation, you’ll optimize your products and services based on Flat Eye intuitive shopping algorithms. Use your funds to upgrade the store in response to global events to better serve the desires of your loyal customers and unlock a variety of branching narrative paths.
Each Flat Eye location aims to provide its guests with unparalleled customer service alongside a bespoke shopping experience. Engage with loyal customers to hear stories that touch on digital privacy, corporate control, and humanity’s increasing reliance on technology, ranging from the absurd and comical to eye-opening and unnerving.
Remember — “Flat Eye knows what you want before you do!”
Key Features:
A thoughtful balance between simulation mechanics and rich narrative. Story and simulation blend together seamlessly for a one-of-a-kind experience for fans of both genres.
Each loyal customer you befriend comes with their own rich story.
Branching tech tree: Upgrade your store, products, and staff to unlock new modules and services, attracting new customers with exciting stories!
Multiple outcomes: Track different narrative beats and use the knowledge you learn to shape humanity’s future.
Flat Eye is expected to launch later this year on PC. The game is available to wishlist now on Steam.
About MONKEY MOON
MONKEY MOON doesn’t sell products to customers, it makes games for players. Based in Lyon, France, our small team is comprised of people from various backgrounds and horizons. Our motivation to make games that are “different” pushes our team to do what it does best: creating new experiences through thought-provoking narrative content. Twitter
About Raw Fury
Raw Fury is a (un)publisher. We don’t care about genres or mechanics. We care about experiences and emotions. We want to help developers make magic. Twitter | Website
Shake, mix, stir and pour for a galaxy of extra-terrestrial patrons deep in outer space
Bristol UK, March 17th 2022. Startenders, developed by Bristol-based Foggy Box Games, is a new VR bartending experience out now on Meta Quest and Meta Quest 2. An immersive arcade-style game with a wacky sci-fi narrative, Startenders puts players behind the bar to mix cocktails for an assortment of weird and wonderful patrons.
See Startenders’ unique blend of space mixology in the Startenders – out now on Meta Quest and Meta Quest 2 trailer here.
As a newly enrolled intern in the Startenders Academy, players will have to shake, slice, cryo blast and serve to level up their skills behind the bar. Startenders has over 100 named recipes utilising over 25 ingredients which can be served at three different temperatures, within three styles of glass and topped off with 13 different garnishes, so there’s plenty to keep on top of as you rise through the bartending ranks. That’s over two million unique combinations of possible drinks – a lot.
Startenders offers ‘Story’, ‘Free Mix’, ‘Pass the Headset’ and ‘Daily Run’ game modes, allowing players to enjoy a hilarious narrative adventure meeting new alien species, experiment with the craziest cocktails imaginable or compare their drinks-making skills with the rest of the world in daily challenges.
“We wanted each player’s Startenders experience to be unique, so we built a system that can provide endless procedurally generated shifts, with different customers and orders each time you play,” says Chris Youles, Creative Director of Foggy Box Games. “We strove to create an experience where the players are not punished for having fun, even if it means going off script. The game doesn’t have fail-states or restarts, we want players to experiment and let their creativity influence their mixology.”
Features
Full hand tracking
Pass The Headset local social party mode
Create your own custom drinks for customers to order
Make multiple drinks on time and as requested – the quicker and more accurate your concoction the higher your tips.
Upgrade your equipment, purchase different ingredients to discover a wide array of drinks to serve.
You get one chance a day compete on the global leader board for the best score in Daily Play
Relax or train in-between shifts in your habitat
Startenders features a range of VR specific accessibility options for the comfort of players. Playable seated or standing, the game also allows for teleport node-based locomotion and optional snap turning, seated mode height offsets, in-world subtitles and height adjustment on all surfaces.
Startenders is out now on Meta Quest and Meta Quest 2 priced $14.99 / £11.99 / €14.99. PlayStation and PC VR versions are planned for a later date. Developed by Foggy Box Games and published by Yogscast Games.
Visit joinstartenders.com for more info.
About Foggy Box Games Foggy Box Games are Alastair Callum and Chris Youles, a game development duo based in Bristol, England. Their debut game Brunch Club is out now on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
About Yogscast Games Yogscast Games is the independent publisher dedicated to independent developers, founded in 2017 by The Yogscast.
Players can explore an abandoned floating city and engage in co-op play from 1-4 players in upcoming VR title to release this spring 2022 for Meta Quest2 and PCVR
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – March 17, 2022 – Thirdverse Inc. is pleased to announce that its new VR multiplayer sword-fighting action game, ALTAIR BREAKER, will be available for purchase in the spring of 2022. The newest title from Thirdverse leverages the expertise from the company’s first and most successful VR title “SWORDS of GARGANTUA“, and features top talent, including Noisycroak famous composer Hideki Sakamoto to direct the game soundtrack and popular anime and games voice actor Xanthe Huynh to dub navigator character “Stella”. The game is set on an abandoned city floating in the void of the VR world Altair, where players can dive in to unravel the mysteries of this AI-controlled world.
Thirdverse will offer the first hands-on demos of ALTAIR BREAKER to visitors of the annual Game Developers Conference in San Francisco from March 23-25 at the Moscone Convention Center North Hall in booth N3011.
Check out the preview trailer for ALTAIR BREAKER here:
◆ A New Generation VR Sword-Fighting Action Designed with casual players in mind, this title brings a “new generation of VR sword-fighting action” to the VR world. The game features several unique aspects and actions that would be impossible to perform in the real world, such as high-speed sword-fighting action, blow-ups, aerial combos, and wide-range attacks with special moves. ALTAIR BREAKER also enables multiplayer for up to four players and cross-play between Meta Quest 2 and PCVR, leaving players free to be matched with users from all over the world and communicate via voice chat.
◆ Introducing the World of ALTAIR BREAKER The game takes place in an aerial city located in the VR world called “Altair”, where AI was created in the past to help and develop singularity-like creatures. Once a group of islands covered in a sea of clouds, most of the islands have collapsed to this day. Now they are nothing but ruins floating in the void, with the experimental battle AIs left behind and free to wander around. Players are guided by the humanoid AI that observes this land and challenged to fight against the vicious battle AI.
◆ Popular Anime and Games Voice Actor Xanthe Huynh to dub navigator character “Stella” Xanthe Huynh is a Los Angeles actor with a degree in the Dramatic Arts from the University of California, Irvine. Represented by Dean Panaro Talent, she’s been working in voice over for over 10 years and is known for roles such as Palla-Palla from Sailor Moon SuperS, Tsugumi in Scarlet Nexus, Miggy in Aggretsuko, Maquia in Maquia When the Promised Flower Blooms, Haru in Persona 5, Marianne in Fire Emblem Three Houses, Kanon in Neo: The World Ends With You, and Vatista in Blazblue Cross Tag Battle.
◆ Noisycroak famous composer Hideki Sakamoto to direct the game soundtrack Composer/Representative of Noisycroak. Music creator in many fields, mainly for games’ soundtracks. Key works include “Super Smash Brothers Ultimate” (main theme “Lifelight”, composition and arrangement), “Crayon Shin chan: Ora to Hakase no Natsuyasumi – Owaranai Nanokakan no Tabi” (main theme, composition and arrangement), “Windboys!”, “Bungo to Alchemist”, “Romance of The Three Kingdoms 14”, “Echochrome” Series, and “Holy Invasion of Privacy, Badman! What Did I Do to Deserve This?” series.
Product Overview
Supported Platforms: Meta Quest2, PCVR
Title: “ALTAIR BREAKER”
Genre: VR Multiplayer Sword Fighting Action
Price: to be announced
Release: Spring 2022
Supported Languages: Japanese, English (more in future update)
About Thirdverse, Inc. Founded in 2020, Thirdverse Inc. is a virtual reality game development, distribution and management company paving the path to the metaverse, and based out of Tokyo, Japan and San Francisco. In 2019, the studio released the world’s first VR multiplayer sword-fighting action game, SWORDS of GARGANTUA. Thirdverse is also currently promoting the “Thirdverse Plan”, aiming to create a “Third Space” in the virtual metaverse.
Thirdverse is best known for its flagship title SWORDS of GARGANTUA, a top-rated VR game in the Oculus and Steam stores, which has continued to grow its fanbase as well as its breadth through the release of feature expansions, such as with the adventure modes, Tesseract Abyss 1 and 2. Additionally, the company currently has several unannounced VR and blockchain projects in development.
Nostalgic, action-packed dogfight with online multiplayer and comic-book visuals
Krakow, Poland — March 17, 2022 – Publisher All in! Games announced that its arcade biplane shooter, Red Wings: American Aces, a spin-off of their previous in-house developed arcade shooter, Red Wings: Aces of the Sky will be launching on PC and Nintendo Switch on March 31st. A 20% pre order discount is available for Nintendo Switch until March 31st.
Red Wings: American Aces puts players in the pilot’s seat of a nostalgic, action-packed arcade shooter illustrated in a vibrant comic-book style with a gaming mode for every occasion, also featuring online multiplayer. Budding air aces have 15 different planes to choose from, each with its own unique plane skin across 30 campaign missions available in local co-op for 1-2 players.
Players can also embark on three different gameplay modes, Score Battle, Time Battle, and Hide n’ Seek in a game where fast frenetic arcade gameplay and short gameplay sessions are sure to keep budding pilots on their toes. For larger aerial battles players can build a squad of 5 other players in elimination mode against other squads where safety in numbers can make all the difference.
“Red Wings: American Aces honors the older arcade classics but adds a modern twist allowing for online multiplayer – the first arcade aerial shooter to do that! ” said Norman Lenda, Development Director. “We wanted to pile on the fun factor in a big entertaining way rather than creating something locked into historical accuracy. There’s plenty of different planes and modes to choose from so each play session offers a new experience.”
Key Features:
Fly online – Test your skills against a max of 9 other players in Last Man Standing, Score Battle, or Time Battle modes or gather your squad of up to 5 pilots and battle other squads in Elimination, Time Team Battle, or Score Team Battle modes
Fly locally – Play custom games in 3 different modes (Score Battle, Time Battle, and Hide n’ Seek (2 players only)) solo against AI or against another player
Complete 30 missions in campaign mode – relive the aerial dogfights of WWI and encounter all manner of unexpected challenges (available in local co-op for 1-2 players)
Upgrade your pilot progression skill tree – develop your pilot skills and rearrange points depending on the mission at hand
Pilot 15 different warplanes, each with unique skins – stand out in the heat of battle with a plane your enemies won’t soon forget
Rise to the challenge – be prepared for thunderstorms that blast skill cooldowns, sandstorms that reduce visibility, missions where you’ll only be able to take out enemies with barrel rolls, and more!
To stay up to date with Red Wings: American Aces visit the game blog at All In! Games here or the games Steam page here.
About Red Wings: American Aces
Red Wings: American Aces puts you in the pilot’s seat of a nostalgic, action-packed arcade shooter illustrated in a vibrant comic-book style with a gaming mode for every occasion. Prove yourself in exciting aerial battles and make a name for your squad as the best aces of WWI!
About All in! Games
All in! Games is a publicly traded video game publishing and production house based in Krakow, Poland. Founded in 2018, the team creates and supports local and international games for PC and consoles. All in! Games’ portfolio features titles such as Chernobylite (The Farm 51), Paradise Lost (PolyAmorous), Alaloth: Champions of The Four Kingdoms (Gamera Interactive), Tools Up! (The Knights of Unity), and many more. For more information, visit: https://www.allingames.com/
IAM8BIT AND SKYBOUND GAMES, TOGETHER WITH COIN CREW GAMES, UNVEIL ESCAPE ACADEMY
An Interactive Mystery that Brings the Teamwork and Time-Pressure of Escape Rooms
to the Living Room
Coming to PC, Xbox and Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Consoles This June
LOS ANGELES – Mar. 16, 2022 – – iam8bit and Skybound Games have teamed up with the creative minds at Coin Crew Games to reveal Escape Academy, one of the first video games to capture the authentically mind-bending escape room experience. Escape Academy invites players to follow in the footsteps of extraordinary Escapists, puzzling their way through a variety of team-based, exploration and time-pressure challenges, created specifically to bring the mystery, intrigue and fun of brick-and-mortar escape rooms into players’ homes.
The Escape Academy announcement trailer can be viewed here.
Escape Academy is available to be added to wish lists for each platform at the following links for Steam and PlayStation with Xbox coming at a later date.
Coin Crew Games, co-founded by Wyatt Bushnell and Mike Mohammed Salyh, has deep roots in designing real-world experiences that blend immersive gameplay with a keen focus on group interaction. Bushnell has built attractions for amusement parks and arcades including the tech-infused Two Bit Circus, which features massive escape rooms, and Salyh has designed games for Disney, Zynga and Two Bit Circus. Once Wyatt and Mike met, they subsequently became business partners after they were contracted to create an IRL escape room experience together.
“Our goal has always been bringing people together to play, whether that’s in arcades or at home,” said Mike Mohammed Salyh, co-founder, Coin Crew Games. “As a studio, we’re rigorous about playtesting our designs early and often, a philosophy we pulled from our years developing games for the location based entertainment space.”
“We were stoked to take those development ideals to iam8bit and Skybound, who were pivotal in helping us navigate the digital side of game development,” said Wyatt Bushnell, co-founder, Coin Crew Games. “We’ve heard a lot of horror stories about publishing relationships, but this one felt more like a romantic comedy.”
Escape Academy is the first original title to be revealed under iam8bit Presents, as the company adds games publishing to its repertoire.
“iam8bit and Coin Crew share the same ideals in bringing truly special, one-of-kind experiences to players,” said Jon M. Gibson and Amanda White, co-owners, iam8bit. “Escape Academy really captures the thrill of teaming up with friends and the real adrenaline rush to beat the clock – and we’re saying this based on our own experience designing IRL escape rooms for Resident Evil and Alita: Battle Angel. There are so many layers to the narrative and nuanced elements that make the puzzles feel like compelling challenges.”
“Skybound Games is focused on giving a platform to creators making unique interactive experiences, and we knew right away that Coin Crew was creating something special,” said Ian Howe, co-CEO, Skybound Games. “Wyatt, Mike and the Coin Crew team have expertly crafted a group gaming experience that will both define and challenge the team dynamic, bringing out the best in friends and family to manage the pressure of unlocking each room.”
Set in a secret world, players find themselves swept up by the mysteries of Escape Academy, a training ground for individuals with roguish skills suited to the “art of escape.” These new recruits must puzzle their way through deadly challenges set forth by zany and charismatic professors to secure their place among the legendary “Escapists.” Filled with shocking twists and turns, players will navigate through high stakes escape rooms, ultimately uncovering a threat they could have never imagined.
Escape Academy will be available this June Day One on Xbox Game Pass and for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4 and PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Additional information can be found on the webpage at escape.academy.
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About iam8bit
Founded in 2005, iam8bit is a creative production emporium that has quietly redefined the entertainment industry, time and time again. Collaborating with a plethora of partners and narrative-busting IPs, iam8bit punctuates the importance of engaging with fans directly. By creating the videogame industry’s very first community events, the company injected the idea of experiential immersion into game and film marketing (back when it was simply known as “theatre”). iam8bit also played a crucial role in the vinyl renaissance, minting its first record in 2010, and is the industry leader in premium physical editions of top-tier games. In 2020, iam8bit evolved into financing and publishing games, with several yet-to-be-announced PC, console and tabletop games on the horizon under its iam8bit Presents imprint. The company is based in Los Angeles and co-owned by Jon M. Gibson and Amanda White. Visit iam8bit.com or follow @iam8bit on Instagram or Twitter.
About Coin Crew Games
Coin Crew Games is an indie games studio founded in 2018 with one goal in mind: bringing people together to play. With innovative concepts and research-driven design, Coin Crew Games is developing multiplayer experiences and games to be played both in and out of home. Based in Los Angeles, Coin Crew Games is best known for the arcade machine “Hot Wheels: King of the Road” found at every Dave & Buster’s and now the upcoming puzzle-adventure game “Escape Academy”. To learn more, visit www.coincrew.games or follow us on Instagram and Twitter.
About Skybound Games
Skybound Games, a division of Skybound Entertainment, collaborates with creators to publish, produce, develop, and license exceptional video game IP across a variety of genres and platforms. The Skybound Games publishing slate includes Telltale’s The Walking Dead, Before Your Eyes, Rainbow Billy and The Big Con among others.
As a strategic partner of Striking Distance Studios, Skybound Games brings its global marketing and distribution capabilities to the highly-anticipated survival-horror game The Callisto Protocol.
The Skybound Games team also manages physical distribution of several award-winning indie games including Boneloaf’s Gang Beasts, and alongside partner iam8bit, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, Untitled Goose Game and more. Skybound Games can be found on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and at www.skybound.com.
Paradox Announces PC Milestone Before Console Release
Sydney, Australia – 17th March 2022 – A year and a half after its release in September 2020, Paradox Interactive’s medieval grand strategy game Crusader Kings III has sold two million units, making it one of the fastest Paradox titles to hit that landmark number. A game of almost endless variety and potential for story-telling, Crusader Kings III launched to critical acclaim and succeeded in reaching a new generation of strategy gamers.
Last month’s release of Royal Court, the first major expansion for Crusader Kings III, was also a cause for celebration, as that add-on has already topped one million sales. This expansion added new ways to rule your realm from your own throne room, including major changes to the game’s culture system and adding artifact items.
“Two million is a huge milestone for us on the Crusader Kings team,” says Game Director Alex Oltner. “It’s a strong vote of confidence from the community at large, and we’re overjoyed that our games can reach such a wide audience. This is good not only for us, but for strategy games in general, I think. We have big plans for CK3, and it’s good to know that so many people will be taking this journey with us.”
Soon, aspiring emperors will be able to manage their brave knights and scheming courtiers on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles. Developed in partnership with Lab42 Studios, the console adaptation of this beloved strategy role-playing experience will bring even more subjects under the mostly benevolent rule of a game that has entertained gamers around the world for millions of hours.
Scheduled for release on March 29th, the console adaptation of Crusader Kings III is available for pre-order on both systems, and for pre-loading on Xbox Series X|S machines.
About Paradox Interactive:
The Paradox Interactive group includes development, publishing, and licensing of games and brands, consisting of a portfolio of more than 100 titles created both internally and by independent studios. Paradox owns an array of award-winning and top-selling brands including Cities: Skylines, Stellaris, Crusader Kings, Victoria, Age of Wonders, and the World of Darkness catalogue.
From the company’s start in 2004, Paradox has published its games worldwide, with top markets including the USA, UK, China, Germany, France, Russia, and Scandinavia. Today, over five million gamers play a Paradox game each month.
Paradox Interactive AB (publ)’s shares are listed on Nasdaq Stockholm First North Premier under ticker PDX. FNCA Sweden AB is the company’s Certified Adviser. For more information, please visit www.paradoxinteractive.com
About Koch Media
The Koch Media Group is a global developer, publisher and distributor of video games, VR games, gaming hardware and merchandise.
The group’s publishing activities, marketing and distribution extend throughout Europe, America, Australia and Asia. Koch Media has more than 25 years of experience in the digital media business and has risen to become a leading global publishing partner. The Koch Media Group runs a multi-label strategy with fully owned publishing units such as Prime Matter, Deep Silver, Milestone, Vertigo Games and Ravenscourt, publishing games for consoles, PC and VR platforms across all physical and digital channels.
Additionally, as global publishing partner Koch Media has formed long-term multi-national publishing collaborations with numerous game publishers including Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, Capcom, CI Games, Giants Software, Kalypso, Koei Tecmo, Konami, Paradox, Sega, SNK, Square Enix, Techland, Tripwire, Warner Bros, and many others. With its parent company in Höfen, Austria, and the Publishing HQ in Munich, Germany, Koch Media owns local publishing companies in Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Australia, the United States as well as Japan and Hong Kong.
The Koch Media Group owns nine game development studios: Deep Silver Volition (Champaign, IL / USA), Deep Silver Dambuster Studios (Nottingham / UK), Deep Silver Fishlabs (Hamburg / Germany), Warhorse Studios (Prague / Czech Republic), Milestone (Milan / Italy), Voxler (Paris / France) , Flying Wild Hog (Warsaw, Kraków, Rzeszów / Poland), Free Radical Design (Nottingham / UK), Vertigo Games (Rotterdam /The Netherlands) and DigixArt (Montpellier, France). Additionally, the Koch Media Group collaborates with numerous independent development studios around the world.
Part of the Koch Media Group is also Koch Films, a leading European independent film distributor with business primarily in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy as a cinema, TV, online and Home Entertainment distributor. The Koch Media Group also owns Gaya Entertainment, a leading video game merchandise company in Munich, Germany, and the Quality Assurance Facility in Olomouc, Czech Republic.
Today we are pleased to present the next episode of Into the Starfield: Made For Wanderers. Join members of the Starfield development team including Game Director Todd Howard, Design Director Emil Pagliarulo, Lead Quest Designer Will Shen and Lead Artist Istvan Pely for a roundtable discussion as they talk about team’s approach to designing an immersive, next-generation RPG that gives players the freedom to navigate their own path through the cosmos.
Check out Into the Starfield: Made For Wanderers here.
Stay tuned for more episodes of Into the Starfield in the coming months to learn even more about how the team is building a new universe from the ground up.
Starfield arrives exclusively on Xbox Series X|S and PC on 11.11.22. Fans can play it day one with Xbox Game Pass.
