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TURTLE BEACH ADDS NEW XO THREE AND RECON 150 GAMING HEADSETS FOR XBOX ONE AND PLAYSTATION®4 TO 2017 LINEUP

Philip Federico
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TURTLE BEACH ADDS NEW XO THREE AND RECON 150 GAMING HEADSETS FOR XBOX ONE AND PLAYSTATION®4 TO 2017 LINEUP

The XO THREE and RECON 150’s Large 50mm Speakers and High-Sensitivity Mic Deliver Turtle Beach’s Unbeatable Game and Chat Sound Needed for Multiplayer Victory

Previously Announced RECON CHAT Gaming Headsets for Xbox One and PS4™ Now Available at Participating Retail Outlets Nationwide

Sydney, Australia – May 17, 2017 – Turtle Beach Corporation (NASDAQ: HEAR) today revealed two new models for its 2017 lineup of acclaimed gaming headsets for Xbox One and PlayStation®4. Similar in style to the company’s best-selling XO FOUR STEALTH, the new XO THREE officially licensed gaming headset for Xbox One and RECON 150 offer the same rugged and robust design as their predecessor, with large 50mm speakers and Turtle Beach’s renowned high-sensitivity mic to deliver the unbeatable game and chat audio needed to secure victory on the multiplayer battlefield. The XO THREE and RECON 150 are planned to launch at participating retailers this Australian winter with local pricing still to be confirmed.

Additionally, last month Turtle Beach redefined what gamers should expect from a chat headset with the all-new RECON CHAT for Xbox One and PS4™, which are now available globally at participating retail outlets.

“Part of our consistent success in this category is rooted in the breadth and quality of our lineup because we have a gaming headset for every type of player,” said Juergen Stark, CEO, Turtle Beach Corporation. “The XO THREE and RECON 150 headsets are great additions to our mid-range line of products, delivering amazing game audio, crystal clear chat and comfort at a great price.”

In addition to the large, high-quality 50mm speakers and Turtle Beach’s renowned high-sensitivity mic, the XO THREE and RECON 150 include convenient in-line controls that put Master Volume and Mic Mute right at your fingertips. The XO THREE also delivers immersive virtual surround sound on Xbox One via Windows Sonic for Headphones, making your games, movies and music a more in-depth experience.

Full details on Turtle Beach’s XO THREE and RECON 150 are below:

  • Rugged & Comfortable Design – The XO THREE and RECON 150 have a thick, rugged and robust frame with a plush leather-wrapped headband and breathable fabric-wrapped ear-cushions that allow you to play for hours in complete comfort.
  • Surround Sound Ready* – The XO THREE is surround sound ready for Windows Sonic for Headphones on Xbox One (and compatible Windows 10 PCs) so you can experience your games, movies and music with deeper immersion.

*Windows Sonic for Headphones only available on Xbox One (and compatible Windows 10 PCs) with update from Microsoft.

  • Large 50mm Speakers – Hear every crisp high and thundering low with these large, high-quality 50mm over-ear speakers.
  • Crystal Clear Chat – Turtle Beach’s renowned high-sensitivity mic picks-up your voice loud and clear, and can be removed when watching movies or listening to music.
  • Convenient In-line Controls – Convenient in-line controls place Master Volume and Mic Mute right at your fingertips.
  • Versatile Compatibility – Works great with PS4 and Xbox One controllers with a 3.5mm jack, as well as with PC, Mac® and mobile/tablet devices with a 3.5mm connection. Other Xbox One controllers require the Headset Audio Adaptor (sold separately).

For more information on the latest Turtle Beach gaming headsets and audio accessories, visit www.turtlebeach.com, and be sure to follow Turtle Beach on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Critically Acclaimed Plaftormer “Splasher” Spattering its way to Consoles this Fall

Philip Federico
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Critically Acclaimed Plaftormer “Splasher” Spattering its way to Consoles this Fall

The Splashteam and The Sidekicks confirm development of the quirky platformer for Playstation 4, Xbox One and Switch.

Montpellier, France – 05/16/2017 – Since its launch on Steam last February, Splasher has been critically acclaimed and considered as one of the best platformers of the year so far, with flattering comparisons to hits like Super Meat Boy. The proof is in the pudding. Steam customer reviews to date are 97% positive. Today, the Splashteam and The Sidekicks are thrilled to announce that the Speedrun challenging platformer will be released this fall on Playstation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

Splasher is a 2D platformer with unique arcade/action gameplay. Set in a crazy cartoon universe, it offers gamers challenges that require agility, speed and fast reflexes.

Armed with a splatter cannon, players launch an attack on a paint factory in order to save the workers, called the Splashers and stand up against the evil boss. The amazing paint cannon grants you color superpowers. Splashers can stick to the walls, bounce, or attack enemies. To succeed in this noble mission and put an end to the madness, players will have to put their skills and reflexes to the test and face whatever the factory throws at them.

Splasher has been acknowledged for its inch-perfect level design that makes it very popular in the Speedrun community. The game offers several competitive modes and world leaderboards and started a #SplasherChallenge that led to a fierce competition between players including some very skilled youtubers and twitchers. As a reward for the developers the game already made its way to the next SGDQ line-up, the most popular worldwide speedrun event.

For the players willing to discover Splasher before next fall, the PC edition is available this week on Steam with a special 25% discount offer (until Monday, May 22nd).

>About The Splashteam
The Splashteam was founded by Romain Claude, former Game Designer and Level Designer at Ubisoft (Rayman Origins, Rayman Legends). He gathered a small, talented team, including Richard Vatinel a.k.a Gromy, Art Director, and Aymeric Schwartz, composer and sound designer (Absolver, Rayman Origins or Valiant Hearts), to create Splasher.

About The Sidekicks
The Sidekicks is a video game label founded in 2015 and focusing on PC and Consoles premium games.  In addition to Splasher, its publisher line-up includes highly anticipated games such as Edge of Eternity or Hover; Revolt of Gamers as well as promising titles such as Old School Musical or BAFL.
More info on: www.TheSidek.com

Porno Studio Tycoon Review

Jamie Laike Tsui
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Porno Studio Tycoon Review

Porno Studio Tycoon

Developer: Zitrix Megalomedia
Publisher: Zitrix Megalomedia
Platform: Windows
Release Date: 5 May 2017
Price: $19.69 USD – Available Here

Overview

Porno Studio Tycoon is a serious business sim delivered with a titillating premise. Players will run their own pornography business making, selling, and marketing pornographic films around the world. Although the premise is definitely 18+, the game itself has suggestive but no explicit content.

Story

As to be expected of a tycoon genre game, there is no actual story in Porno Studio Tycoon. The writing is rather poor. Some sentences are passable, but others are pure nonsense. The game’s text was written or translated from its original Russian by someone who is does not speak English fluently.

Gameplay

Porno Studio Tycoon is a difficult game to learn. The tutorials consist of two poorly written interactive walkthroughs that provide instruction on the absolute basic functions of the game. The game leaves players to figure out a bulk of the game on their own. There is little documentation to explain most mechanics in the game. Although the first new game generated supposedly locks down many features to “introduce” them slowly, the actual explanations are either non-existent or nonsensical. The automatic scene creator that is unlocked for the second new game for easier play is equally confusing, leaving me more willing to tough out managing the minor details in each scene than force myself to master a new, confusing menu.

The menus follow the trend of confusion and a lack of clarity. The tooltips are marginally helpful at best. Some sliders, buttons, and UI elements are not explained at all. Some menu buttons are not properly sized against the English text, making them hard to read. The layout is a disorganized mess. The game is laid out like a point and click adventure game found on mobile devices than an actual business sim, making the navigation feel bloated Creating a film starting with hiring actors to post production to tracking your business’ records requires hopping between multiple locations, creating multiple unnecessary steps.

If a player manages to endure the poor layout and experiment with the game enough to learn the ropes, they will discover a half competent business tycoon. While it is not as epic or complex as some of the titans in the genre, there are plenty of variables in the creation and marketing of films that need attention for players to be successful. Actors need to be cast in the right roles based on their abilities, extra technical crew can be hired to improve the quality of the film, and the day’s filming schedule must be optimized to keep actors focused on their jobs without exhausting them. Players will constantly need to keep an eye out on changing market data to ensure a stream of relevant films hit the market that caters to ever changing demands that change by country and by week. When money is low, players can sell scenes or pick up contracts to make a quick buck.

The developers have done a good job with giving the end users a good bit of freedom to tweak their game as they please. The new game menu provides a plethora of options to tweak the difficulty of the game beyond the preset difficulty settings. Additionally, the game features mod support through Steam Workshop.

Visuals

Porno Studio Tycoon features nice graphics that are probably a touch too risqué to be safe for work, but not actually pornographic in nature. The quality of art is high, but the style feels quite generic for the most part. The style is almost identical to the sea of hidden object adventure games that are churned out for mobile platforms. The only part of the game’s graphics that really stand out is the cheeky icons that allude to a variety of acts the performers can be directed to perform.

Audio

The audio experience is a bit disappointing. The music consists of rather generic tunes that are incredibly forgettable. Many of the songs would feel at home in old 1990’s shareware games or an elevator. There are some voice lines. The acting is decent, though there is a distinct lack of variety in the actors and lines themselves. It is important to note that only female actors are given voice lines, as the game lacks any male voice.

Overall

Reviewing Porno Studio Tycoon has been a bit of a challenge due to the nature of its taboo content. Up to this point in my review, I have consciously treated the game as if it was making normal movies seen at the theatre to separate the game itself from it’s taboo content. But at some point, I must address the giant thousand-pound elephant in lingerie that has been in the room that I have made all attempts to ignore up until now. This game involves pushing the boundaries of the last great Western media taboo surrounding of sex, thanks in a large part to the United States of America’s massive influence on English language entertainment. While controversy around depictions of violence and drugs have largely subsided in recent decades, the Hot Coffee controversy involving Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is still rather fresh. Why is this rather dry, academic tangent relevant to a $20 video game made by a Russian developer? Because this game would have never received the same attention if it was simply called Movie Studio Tycoon. Sex and pornography isn’t being portrayed in a sex positive or even a sex negative way in Porno Studio Tycoon. I can accept that making an adult themed game on Steam is problematic in its own rights based on a lack of clear guidance on what Valve is willing to accept. Russian laws also brings its own sets of rules with depictions of non-heterosexual content. Both facts may have impacted some design decisions on how sex and pornography is depicted in the game. But the problem lies in the fact the game treats sex with poorly translated wink wink, nudge nudge treatment of innuendo that makes the whole endeavour feel like it was designed to strictly capture the attention of 18-21 year old straight young men with promises of risqué and tantalizing content. While the game is rather restrained in the larger scheme of things, the emphasis on the sexualized depictions of females combined with the innuendo heavy treatment of sex in the game makes it hard to escape the conclusion that the game’s pornographic is essentially clickbait. That is not to say that a pornography studio tycoon sim could not be done in an entertaining and enjoyable way, this is just not the way to do it.

Parsing out any potential controversy related to sex and video games, Porno Studio Tycoon is a game that buries half decent tycoon sim gameplay under a pile of poor writing, bad UI, and lousy documentation. The graphics and audio are polished, but for the most part are completely generic. That alone is enough earns the game a poor review. The immature, clickbait-like handling of the game’s premise just makes the poor game quality all the more offensive.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

The Surge Launches for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One

Jamie Laike Tsui
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The Surge Launches for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One

Focus Home Interactive and Deck13 released their action RPG The Surge today for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows. The game is set in a dystopian future where a large aging population, new technologies, and climate change has crippled the human workforce, reducing most people to manual labour in Exo-Suits. The Surge’s protagonist Warren is joining CREO as one of these labourers. His first day goes poorly as he faints after a painful installation of the Exo-Suit. He soon wakes up to a CREO facility where the humans have gone insane and the robots are on a killing spree.

The Surge features visceral one on one combat that puts emphasis on player skill with its targeted horizontal/vertical strike combat system. With resources scarce, players will have to repurpose industrial machines as weapons of war if they hope to survive. To gain parts to build new equipment for Warren, players will need to make a difficult decision to prolong fights and target armoured limbs or save consumables by ending fights quickly with strikes to unarmoured areas.

https://youtu.be/qJKxe97B5yE

Turtle Beach Announces XO Three and Recon 150 Headsets

Jamie Laike Tsui
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Turtle Beach Announces XO Three and Recon 150 Headsets

Turtle Beach announced two new headsets will be joining their lineup this year. Both the Turtle Beach XO Three and Recon 150 headsets share a design based on the Turtle Beach XO Four Headset released last year for the Xbox One. The headsets are built with a robust and well padded design. The headband features pleather wrapped padding while the ear cup padding is fabric wrapped. Both headsets feature in-line controls and a high sensitivity boom microphone. Both headsets terminate in a 3.5mm plug, making them compatible with most consoles, mobile devices, and computers. The XO Three is also officially certified by Microsoft, signifying it is designed with the newly introduced Windows Sonic surround sound virtualization software.

The Turtle Beach XO Three and Recon 150 will cost $69.99 USD. They will be released in July. The Recon 150 will be exclusive to Best Buy in the US and participating retailers in Canada, Australia, and some EU territories.

On a side note, the budget priced Turtle Beach Recon Chat is available now in stores.

Mars Survival Game ROKH is Out Now on Steam Early Access

Jamie Laike Tsui
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Mars Survival Game ROKH is Out Now on Steam Early Access

Indie devs Darewise Entertainment and Nvizzio Creations announced that their cooperative Mars survival game ROKH is out now on Steam Early Access. The game is currently in Alpha phase, with plenty of content still on the horizon. The game currently features an expansive crafting system, resource harvesting, and a large open world to explore. The devs expect the game to be in Early Access for the next year; where combat, vehicle crafting, in-game programming, and farming will be added to the game along with numerous bug fixes and optimizations.

In ROKH, players take on the role of early explorers sent to Mars to establish a colony for incoming settlers. With the most basic blueprints, players will use the modular crafting system to turn the dusty planet into a thriving colony. For the duration of the Early Access period, ROKH is $24.99 USD on Steam.

https://youtu.be/O46pQJhmWVw

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands “Fallen Ghosts” to Launch on May 30

Jamie Laike Tsui
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Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands “Fallen Ghosts” to Launch on May 30

Ubisoft announced the second expansion pack “Fallen Ghosts” for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands will launch for all Season Pass owners on May 30th. The expansion will be available for purchase separately on June 6th. The expansion pack adds 15 new missions, introduces four new enemy types, raises the level cap to 35, adds nine new skills, and introduces six new guns.

“Fallen Ghosts” is set after the fall of the Santa Blanca cartel. Bolivia has fallen into a violent civil war. Unidad has decided that their path to power is to ensure the removal of all Americans from Bolivian soil. Desperate for skilled soldiers to track down and eliminate the remaining Americans, Unidad has recruited mercenaries, former cartel members, criminals, and anyone else willing to hunt down the Americans in a unit called Los Extranjeros. The Ghosts have been tasked with helping all remaining Americans in Bolivia. Their mission takes a turn for the worst when their helicopter is shot down and they are now trapped in the jungle with Los Extranjeros on the hunt.

 

EMPATHY: PATH OF WHISPERS OUT NOW FOR PC

Philip Federico
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EMPATHY: PATH OF WHISPERS OUT NOW FOR PC

Haarlem, The Netherlands – May 16, 2017 – Developer Pixel Night and publisher Iceberg Interactive announce the release of their first-person adventure game, Empathy: Path of Whispers. Players can now purchase this surreal and atmospheric experience at a SRP of $19.99, through Steam and other digital retailers. To celebrate, Empathy: Path of Whispers will have a 20% discount for the week of launch.

In addition, the soundtrack to Empathy: Path of Whispers, composed by Nicolai Patricio and featuring 16 tracks, is available as free downloadable content through Steam.

“With Empathy we set out to seamlessly integrate environmental narrative storytelling into a first-person adventure game.” says Anton Pustovoyt, lead developer at Pixel Night. “You actively need to find, decipher and experience memories left behind by people long gone, in order to unlock the secrets and mysteries of this strange and monumental world that once was. As a player you’ll be led through a rabbit hole and end up more curious than Alice was.”

Pustovoyt continues: “We especially focused on building Empathy’s surreal world, creating multiple areas with a distinct look and feel to get lost in. We want our player to feel charmed, unsettled, intrigued, haunted by their own theories of what could’ve happened. Experiencing a beautiful and evocative environment that’s completely and utterly devoid of life is something we sought to highlight and, hopefully, accomplished with Empathy: Path of Whispers.”

In Empathy: Path of Whispers, players must explore a seemingly abandoned world through the emotions and memories of the people who once inhabited it, trying to restore the world’s lost balance as you journey through its past. With a strong focus on storytelling and exploration, players will find themselves in a strange world created from people’s emotions and memories, which can be manipulated and explored. Those lost memories are the key to rebuilding the crumbling world back to its former state, discovering its mysterious past and halting an impending apocalypse. Through its innovative narrative mechanics, the game will challenge the player to explore and gain an understanding of the weird world they are traveling through.

Stay up-to-date with the latest Empathy: Path of Whispers news and information on the official website www.empathygame.org, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/empathygame, Twitter at https://twitter.com/Empathy_Game and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/iceberginteractive.

ABOUT PIXEL NIGHT

Pixel Night is a newly founded studio based in Stockholm, Sweden, consisting of talented individuals with broad backgrounds in all aspects of game development, from programming and art to design and writing. Their passion is exploring and expanding the limits of storytelling in games, creating atmospheric worlds that are full of secrets waiting to be discovered.

ABOUT ICEBERG INTERACTIVE

Iceberg Interactive is an independent video game publisher founded in 2009 by an international group of games industry veterans and is located in Haarlem, The Netherlands. Staffed with avid gamers, Iceberg works closely with an international assembly of game developers, both midsize and indie. Garnering attention with acclaimed releases over recent years, including Killing Floor 2, Endless Space, Endless Legend, StarDrive 2 and Starpoint Gemini 2, the company has an exceptional line-up, including Oriental Empires, Starpoint Gemini Warlords, Dawn of Andromeda, Empathy, Conarium and Rising Storm 2: Vietnam – with further promising games in the pipeline.
Play it cool!

SATIRICAL JRPG AKIBA’S BEAT PHASES INTO REALITY WITH DELUSION-DEFYING LAUNCH TRAILER

Philip Federico
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SATIRICAL JRPG AKIBA’S BEAT PHASES INTO REALITY WITH DELUSION-DEFYING LAUNCH TRAILER

NEETs, Normies, and Otaku Rejoice – Developer ACQUIRE’s Fantastical Akihabara Adventure and Spiritual Successor to AKIBA’S TRIP Now Available on PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®Vita

Torrance, Calif. – May 16, 2017 – XSEED Games, the independent-minded publishing brand of Marvelous USA, Inc., is proud to announce today that AKIBA’S BEAT, developer ACQUIRE’s highly anticipated satirical JRPG, is now available in North America for the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system and PlayStation®Vita handheld entertainment system. Available in digital and physical formats, the title is XSEED Games’s largest voiceover project to date, featuring English language audio for the game’s nearly 22,000 spoken lines in addition to the option for original Japanese audio.

A launch trailer was released in celebration of the eagerly awaited Akihabara adventure, setting the stage for the whimsical antics and action that await prospective destroyers of delusion

“I recommend this game for anyone who is interested in Japanese culture, and I believe Western players will experience a fun and unique adventure in Akihabara through this title,” said Kohta Takano, Director of AKIBA’S BEAT at ACQUIRE. “The message that I would like to convey through AKIBA’S BEAT is that people should try not to dwell too much on the past, or stick with something just because they’re used to it – there’s still so much to look forward to in the future.”

A spiritual successor to AKIBA’S TRIP: Undead & Undressed, AKIBA’S BEAT is a modern-day satirical spin on the classic Japanese RPG formula. Set in a true-to-life recreation of Tokyo’s Akihabara district (“Akiba” for short), players will take control of a party of characters led by protagonist Asahi Tachibana as they seek to rid the town of anything out of sync with reality during a repeating Sunday from which none of them are able to break away.

There are two sides to the gameplay: first, players will wander the streets and question the quirky Akihabara residents on a variety of subjects related to the mystery at hand, ultimately unlocking fantasy-themed dungeons known as “Delusionscapes” which are infested with monsters called “deluseons.” These deluseons are encountered on the map and fought in a party-based action battle system, putting players’ skills to the test and creating a uniquely challenging experience that seamlessly blends a real-life locale with the secret delusory world of its residents’ innermost desires.

AKIBA’S BEAT also features dual audio support with both English and Japanese language dialog options covering each of its nearly 22,000 spoken lines. Further information on the game’s characters, narrative, and otaku offerings can be found on the recently launched website at http://www.akibasbeat.com.

Developed by ACQUIRE and published in North America by XSEED Games, AKIBA’S BEAT is now available on the PS4™ and “PSVita” systems for $49.99 and $39.99 MSRP respectively.  This title has been rated “T for Teen” by the ESRB. PQube will be bringing the title to Europe on May 19.

For more information on XSEED Games products, please visit www.xseedgames.com. Fans can also follow XSEED Games on Facebook at www.facebook.com/XSEEDGames and on Twitter at www.twitter.com/XSEEDGames.

VENTURE TO MARS WITH ROKH – ADAPTIVE SURVIVAL GAME AVAILABLE NOW ON STEAM

Philip Federico
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0

VENTURE TO MARS WITH ROKH – ADAPTIVE SURVIVAL GAME AVAILABLE NOW ON STEAM

Conquer Mars Cooperatively as you Build Customized Colonies on the Red Planet

Paris, France – May 16, 2017 – Darewise Entertainment and Nvizzio Creations are offering gamers the adventure of a lifetime – a (virtual) trip to Mars! Created by a team of esteemed artistic minds behind games including Thief, Half Life 2, Dishonored, Age of Conan and Assassin’s Creed, ROKH is set on the planet Mars and features a persistent world and multiplayer co-op. This trip won’t require anyone to go to astronaut school, or live in a cramped colony ship, enjoy the stunning experience that is ROKH, available on Steam today.

“ROKH is more than just a sci-fi survival game, it’s a complete colonization experience, with tailored crafting and construction, all taking place  in a lovingly crafted visual world and wrapped up in a mysterious story,” said Benjamin Charbit, CEO, Darewise Entertainment. “We’ve focused our development efforts on cooperative building and crafting which brings free from creation to the genre.”

Available now on Early Access for $24.99 (USD), ROKH challenges players to uncover the cause of the destruction of the previous Mars colonies, while building new ones and restoring communications with Earth – all while adapting to the hostile Martian environment and creating the tools they need to survive and thrive on the forbidding Red Planet.

http://www.youtu.be/PJSQtPwAChU

In ROKH, players must explore the Martian landscape as they scavenge through deserted human structures to gather the resources they need to survive. With few blueprints, players must use their ingenuity to create tools from a variety of materials and construct their own encampments with no design limitations.

ROKH places players on a cold and dry land that harbors a wealth of resources to extract and exploit. Players will explore Mars, paving the way for settlers to come, as Earth’s resources are tapped and the planet is dying. Mars is a hostile planet where joining forces with friends increases efficiency, and invites trade and barter to develop a habitable and customizable ecosystem.

If you are interested in an Early Access preview code for ROKH please request one here or contact Danitra Alomia ([email protected]). To learn more about ROKH, visit www.rokhthegame.com. ‘Like’ the game on Facebook and follow the game’s development on Twitter @Rokhthegame for all the latest developer updates and news.

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ABOUT DAREWISE ENTERTAINMENT:
A first-of-its-kind video game executive production company, Darewise includes a number of game industry elites from Ubisoft, EA and Valve, including Viktor Antonov and Randy Smith. Inspired by the movie industry production houses, we create game concepts and IP, and then partner with talented studios to develop them.  For more information, please visit http://www.darewise.com.

ABOUT NVIZZIO CREATIONS:
In early 2015, Nvizzio Creations spun off Funcom’s game development teams in Montreal, Canada. The studio is now working with some of the most innovative game publishers in the world, making iconic live games through creative design excellence, efficient execution and unparalleled attention to detail. For more information, please visit www.nvizzio.com.

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