505 Games parent company Digital Bros Group has reached an agreement with MercurySteam Entertainment to co-publish and develop the studio’s next title, currently titled Project Iron. The game is aiming to come to multiple platforms worldwide with an as-yet-unrevealed launch date.
Project Iron will be a “third person action RPG set in a dark fantasy world” and will have a €27 million ($30.6 million) budget. No other details on Project Iron are available currently, but this is likely to be the unannounced collaboration revealed during Digital Bros financial report at the end of May. MercurySteam’s last project was Metroid Dread for the Nintendo Switch, which has garnered plenty of positive reviews. The developer has also developed three titles in the Castlevania: Lords of Shadow franchise.
Raffi and Rami Galante, CEOs of Digital Bros Group, said:
We are thrilled to work with the team at MercurySteam, a proven studio that over the years has created numerous phenomenal IPs – including the recent hit release Metroid Dread in partnership with Nintendo. With MercurySteam’s creative vision and talent and 505 Games extensive experience, gamers can expect a high-quality, captivating and engaging videogame.
Before Metroid Dread, MercurySteam had less success with Spacelords, the free-to-play action title previously known as Raiders of the Broken Planet. The multiplayer online asymmetric adventure pitted a team of four Raiders against Invaders in a battle over an ability enhancing substance called Aleph. Spacelords launched in September 2017 with a free prologue and a premium campaign, with three more campaigns releasing over the following months. When this model “didn’t work as planned,” the team realized the only way they would manage to attract millions of gamers was to change to a free-to-play model. Unfortunately Spacelords never reached those heights, although it still has a small but dedicated player base.
[Source: Digital Bros Digital Entertainment]
