Bandai Namco announced that they’re teaming up with Life is Strange developer Dontnod Entertainment to bring a brand-new IP on a new narrative adventure experience. [Thanks, MCV.]
The new game, which is set in a fictional city in the US, will include “a fair dose of investigation,” and has been in development since 2016. While the story is still being finalized, its development won’t affect work on Life is Strange 2, as it is being developed by a separate team of senior devs “from various horizons.”
Bandai Namco VP of marketing, Hervé Hoerdt, told MCV that they want new IPs to make up 50 per cent of the company’s business, and they’re working on that by developing long-term partnerships with a few studios.
“The first visible part of this was Little Nightmares, and we’ve been extremely happy [with it], but this is only the start of something. We also recently released Get Even, and now we’re very happy to partner with Dontnod.”
“Dontnod was a kind of rough diamond – very much a rising star, I would say – and with the success of Life is Strange, it’s the first big player in terms of quality business model, vision, and we think that’s a good strategy that fits. It was the right moment, so we decided to partner [with them].”
Not much else was mentioned about the game, but Hoerdt mentioned that its location will be key to attracting as broad an audience possible around the globe:
“It will be located in a fictional place in the US because we think that today, to establish a new brand with a western audience, it helps to win with the US market, so part of the choice [in setting] is having this global worldwide audience in mind.”
“Obviously, the UK benefits from this, which also helps in [broadening the audience, so this is very important. It’s a completely new story, new characters and everything.”
“Obviously, with a studio like Dontnod, you can expect triple-A quality; you can expect a very emotional experience, and this is what we were looking for, like with some kind of investigation and going deep into the psychology of the characters, and giving emotion to the player. This is what we’re aiming for with this partnership.”
More details on the game, including platforms, a release date, and whether it’ll be physical or digital, will be announced in 2018.
