Absurd Ventures, the new studio formed by Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser, has a new partner in Lost Ark developer Smilegate.
Announced on Tuesday, the partnership is being called a “strategic investment” by both sides that “aims to create vast and sustainable business opportunities”. Smilegate is the studio behind games such as Lost Ark and Crossfire.
“This collaboration with Smilegate was borne from a mutual respect and a philosophical alignment with founder Kwon, and the great passion he and his team bring to making AAA games,” Houser said via press release. “We both want to build interesting worlds and new player experiences.”
Joonhoo Sung, Smilegate’s CEO, added: “We are thrilled to collaborate with the developers behind globally renowned series that have millions of fans worldwide. Together with Absurd Ventures, Smilegate aims to deliver games that players across the globe will love. This partnership marks a critical milestone in Smilegate’s journey toward becoming a global IP powerhouse.”
Absurd Ventures is currently working on a AAA third-person open world game and recently saw developers from Immortals of Aveum join the team. There was no update on what this investment from Smilegate will do for the development of their current game, or if things will change with how Absurd Ventures operates.
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Smilegate has made trash before so I don’t know if this helps but maybe?
Microsoft missed opportunity
They should make a game that’s like Ralph Bakshi a cel shaded open world with the slapstick elements his films had like Fritz The Cat, Heavy Traffic, Coonskin, and Cool World had.