The San Francisco-based studio VIVIX was founded by veterans of Control, Dead Space, and Call of Duty. Its debut project, Artificial Detective, already looks like one of the more intriguing narrative action-adventures on the horizon.
The Xbox Partner Preview 2026 delivered several notable announcements, and one of the most interesting among them was clearly Artificial Detective. The game is being developed by the newly formed VIVIX, a San Francisco team founded by former developers from Control, Dead Space, and Call of Duty. After a couple of years in development, the studio has finally unveiled its first project in full, and it is already shaping up to be one of the more promising new titles coming in the next few years.
Artificial Detective, VIVIX’s First Game
As reported by Gematsu, Artificial Detective is a third-person narrative action-adventure with a linear structure, built around exploration, light investigation, and tactical combat against robots. Story will play a central role. Players take control of AD 2846, a robotic detective who awakens with shattered memories in a city filled with decopunk skyscrapers. Humanity has almost entirely vanished, and AD remembers only that in a past life he served as a human assistant. The result is an adventure in which every case works both as a mystery to solve and as a way to reconstruct who AD really was.
He is accompanied by Mowgli, a human girl raised by robots and so deeply immersed in technology that she even “believes she is a robot herself.” There is also DAWG, a half-broken mechanical dog who accidentally wakes up beside AD. The inspirations behind Artificial Detective include Pinocchio and The Jungle Book, while the city’s visual style draws from works such as Blade Runner and Cowboy Bebop. AD himself is described by the developers as “a mix between RoboCop and C-3PO.”
The Gameplay Looks as Promising as the Premise
The narrative already sounds strong, but the gameplay may be even more interesting. Combat will not be simple run-and-gun action, because AD will be able to combine electromagnetic weapons, hacking, stealth, and environmental physics to deal with enemy robots. Between cases, players will explore the city, talk to secondary bots, read newspapers, and recover clues that unlock fragments of AD’s memory. These appear as playable flashbacks set decades earlier in the same locations.
Progression will not revolve around traditional leveling, but around forging bonds with companions. Mowgli unlocks crafting and upgrade options, while DAWG expands what players can do in combat and exploration. Artificial Detective is expected to launch in 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
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