It would be easy to assume that Deck13 Interactive had disappeared after the weak performance of Atlas Fallen, but the German studio has not given up: it is working on a completely new IP.

There are plenty of development studios that go years without releasing a new game, and at some point that silence starts to look suspicious on its own. Deck13 Interactive has reached exactly that point: the German team, formerly known as TriggerLab, once worked at a fairly steady pace, with The Surge, The Surge 2, and Atlas Fallen standing as its most important recent projects. But the Bavarian studio has not released a new title in a long time, and after the reception of Atlas Fallen, it would have been understandable to assume that serious problems were happening behind the scenes. That is not the case: according to Pullup Entertainment’s 2025 financial report, Deck13 Interactive is still working, and it is doing so on a new original license.

The document states that not only Deck13, but also Carpool Studio, a newly formed team founded in 2023, is working on a new IP, which means the publisher is not simply trying to squeeze the next few years out of old brands. The report does not go into lengthy detail about either project, but it makes clear that these productions are part of the group’s broader expansion strategy.

According to Pullup Entertainment, these new games are being built around a philosophy focused on “distinctive creative proposals, universes and stories with great media potential, and experiences geared toward highly engaged player communities.” Geoffroy Sardin added that while the video game market remains highly competitive, it is gradually regaining positive momentum, driven in particular by the remarkable growth of the PC segment. In his view, AA and indie games are also playing an important role in that movement, and Pullup Entertainment considers itself well positioned precisely in that space.

After Atlas Fallen, They Are Not Escaping Toward The Surge 3

The decision to build around new IPs makes sense when looking at Deck13 Interactive’s recent history. The studio has never belonged to Europe’s absolute top tier, but The Surge and The Surge 2 at least gave it a recognizable action-RPG identity of its own. The problem is that even those games did not create the kind of market breakthrough from which a long-term, rock-solid franchise could easily be built. Atlas Fallen became an even harsher warning sign: the game reached just over 2,500 players on Steam across its entire lifespan so far, which is a very poor signal for an open-world RPG with that level of ambition.

That is why many people could have expected Deck13 to retreat toward what looked like a safer past, and eventually bring back the idea of The Surge 3. Based on the current information, however, the German studio is choosing a different direction: instead of clinging to an old name, it wants to rebuild itself from a new foundation.

That is the riskier decision, but it may also be the cleaner restart. The first The Surge sold nearly two million copies, while the commercial performance of its sequel was never supported by official sales figures, and Atlas Fallen failed to prove that the team had found a stronger path forward. That leaves Deck13 in a position that is both fragile and interesting: it has not closed, it has not disappeared, but its next game cannot merely prove that the studio is still alive. It has to prove that the team survived the silence after Atlas Fallen and actually learned something from it.

Source: 3DJuegos