Chinese publisher Tencent has founded a new studio to create real-time strategy games, and to do it, they have hired ex-Blizzard developers.
Blizzard veterans Jason Hughes and David Kim are leading the new Los Angeles-based studio Uncapped Games. Tencent’s subsidiary Lightspeed and Quantum Studios have assisted in the creation of the new studio.
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Kim said, “I’ve always wanted to take a shot at another RTS game for a very long time now, maybe close to a decade.”
Kim met with the head of Lightspeed, Jerry Chen, and the two have similar goals for the studio.
“One of the things he said was ‘Just focus on making a great PC RTS game, and don’t worry about other factors.”
We are very excited to announce @UncappedGames! We are a team of developers brought together by passion, enthusiasm and experience in our goal to make the world’s next great RTS game. https://t.co/JLGKqX3aTf
— 𝗝𝗔𝗦𝗢𝗡 𝗛𝗨𝗚𝗛𝗘𝗦 (@digitalHUGHES) July 1, 2021
Hughes feels similarly about the partnership, saying, “It’s also really nice to be at a company that really believes in the team, believes in the game, believes in what we’re doing, and exactly like David said, there’s a lot of RTS interest, especially from the CEO, and he really just wants us to make a great game.”
He adds, “Lightspeed and Quantum very much believe in the genre and really want something like this to succeed. To say, ‘Just make a great PC RTS game,’ that isn’t something one hears a lot, and to me, that was a big motivating factor.”
Kim also discusses the benefits of being separated from a large brand like Starcraft 2, which he developed during his time at Blizzard.
“If we’re making a sequel to an RTS, there are some things that have to be in that game to make it a sequel. But if we make it a brand new game, it opens up more possibilities on the game design side to be able to execute what we want to execute the best. That’s the advantage we have here, I think.”
Tencent recently acquired a majority stake in Spec Ops: The Line developer Yager.
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