Jeff Gardiner, a veteran of Bethesda Game Studios for the past 15 years, has announced the launch of a brand-new studio - Something Wicked Games. The announcement was made during Opening Night Live at Gamescom.
Something Wicked Games is a new, globally dispersed AAA games studio that has received initial seed funding of $13.2 million from NetEase. The studio has creative and leadership talent from a variety of AAA games, including The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, The Outer Worlds, and more.
The announcement was accompanied by an animated teaser trailer for the first game being developed by the studio, the preternatural Wyrdsong. The upcoming role-playing game is an occult historical fantasy that takes place in a made-up version of Portugal during the middle ages. As Wyrdsong is designed to expand, question, and re-define aspects of the current Role Playing Game genre, players will be put in a position where they are required to question not only their own reality but also the decisions they make.
Wyrdsong is a dark historical fantasy that was developed on Unreal Engine 5 and immerses players in a world where every choice has repercussions, not only in this world but also in others that have yet to be discovered.
The video game industry has provided Gardiner with the opportunity to work on some of the most recognizable franchises in the RPG sector. Gardiner was Bethesda's lead producer and the project lead on a number of the company's flagship titles, including those in the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls franchises. Gardiner's efforts on Fallout 76 saw it transform into one of the most successful and robust examples of the games-as-a-service model before he made the difficult decision to leave Bethesda Game Studios after a career spanning 15 years. This achievement came shortly before Gardiner made the decision to leave the company.
Charles Staples, who was also the studio's co-founder and design director, is also on its roster of talented individuals (Obsidian Entertainment). During his 15 years of service at Obsidian, the roles of Design Director on The Outer Worlds and Lead Level Designer on Fallout: New Vegas stand out as the most significant achievements of Staples' career there.
According to Jeff Gardiner, CEO and Founder of Something Wicked Games, "Our goal with Something Wicked Games is to utilize our independence and creative autonomy to create the next evolution of open world RPGs." "For some time now, Wyrdsong has been my dream game, and I'm thrilled that we can finally share it with you today," said the developer of our first project.
Something Wicked Games is an entirely remote company that is currently hiring for all positions. The company's headquarters are located in the Washington, DC metropolitan area. The studio currently has a staff of 12 developers, but as the pace of development continues to pick up, they hope to reach a full roster of between 65 and 70 developers.
You can learn more about Something Wicked Games by visiting their official site www.SomethingWickedGames.com.