Three pieces of news in one, including a delay.

Focus Entertainment announced that they have partnered with Dreamscapers developer Afterburner Studios to create a new IP. Ownership will be split between the two parties. Afterburner was founded in 2018 by three gaming industry veterans (Robert Taylor, Ian Cofino, and Paul Svoboda, respectively), who then released Dreamscaper in 2021. It has reached over 600,000 players, has an average score of 80 on Metacritic, and 89% of its 2,000 reviews on Steam are positive.

The French publisher has also announced that it is working with Asobo Studio on “another exciting project” after A Plague Tale: Innocence and A Plague Tale: Requiem, which was released over a year ago and has reached 3 million players. No word yet on whether it’s a new IP or a sequel, but we’re guessing the latter since that’s what we’d expect from the studio known for Flight Simulator.

Focus Entertainment, based in Paris, has also confirmed a delay. Saber Interactive is working on Warhammer 40K: Space Marine II, which was originally scheduled for a winter release, but has now been delayed to the second half of 2024 on PlayStation 5, Xbox series and PC (where it’s already at over 1 million wishlists on Steam). The new release date will be announced during The Game Awards. The Games Workshop-licensed game has thus been delayed by at least half a year (as the earliest it can be released is July), and the reason is the usual one (to allow enough time to polish the game and ensure the best experience and exceed the expectations of fans of the franchise).

So the French company has plans and exciting ideas, but the postponement of a Warhammer 40K game is surprisingly long. There may be more chaos in the Embracer Group than previously known (because that’s where Saber Interactive belongs…).

Source: Gematsu, Gematsu, Gematsu