Five independent game studios – including the developers of the upcoming Replaced and the team behind the upcoming Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era – have joined forces in a sort-of co-op in order to support each other with development and marketing, with an aim to eventually create their own co-owned publishing label.
Sad Cat Studios (Replaced), Unfrozen (Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era), Weappy (This Is the Police), VEA Games (Nikoderiko: The Magical World), and Game Garden (Farmdale) aren’t merging; they will each remain independent studios. However, the goal of Nova Assembly is intended to be a backstop against layoffs and increasing development and publishing uncertainty in the gaming space by sharing resources in mutually beneficial ways.
Unfrozen founder Denis Federov, who will be the CEO of Nova Assembly, said, “The formation of a single holding structure bringing together five commercially successful and highly promising game studios will not only enable creators of ambitious gaming projects to share invaluable expertise accumulated over years of experience, but will also allow for more efficient and strategic use of shared resources. And all that without compromising creative independence, which ultimately remains the key driver of competitiveness in today’s challenging market.”
“In a world where we increasingly give over control to algorithms, we’re uniting with like-minded people to reinforce the human element: to exchange human ideas, offer each other human support, and make human decisions together,” added Weappy co-founder Ilya Yanovich, who will be Nova Assembly’s Creative Director.
The studios posted an open letter on the Nova Assembly website, which said in part, “We will support each other with resources. If one team has just launched a successful game while another needs financial backing, we can resolve the matter internally – and avoid making ruinous compromises.
“We will support one another with knowledge and technology. If a team requires a specialist with a specific skillset to tackle a particular challenge, it’s far more sensible to temporarily bring in someone from another team, rather than scrambling around for outside assistance. If a team has developed a flexible dialogue editor or devised a clever process or optimization, everyone should be able to benefit.
“We intend to build our own publishing arm. We value all the partners we currently work with, but looking forward, we want to be the ones deciding how we market and release our games. We want to establish a direct line of communication with our audience and with the various gaming platforms.
“And surely the most important point: making games is hard; making games is daunting; and there’s nothing more valuable than the sense you aren’t alone in the endeavor. It’s always a joy to share success with friends – but it’s far more crucial to know that there’s someone willing to share the burden of your mistakes and missteps – so we can be bold enough to take creative risks.
Replaced (wishlist it or play the demo on Steam if you’re interested) is due out on PC and Xbox (including day-one on Game Pass) on April 14. Heroes of Might & Magic: Olden Era (wishlist it or play the demo on Steam if you’re interested) is due to launch into Early Access on April 30. The Eternal Life of Goldman (wishlist it or play the demo on Steam if you’re interested) has no release window as of yet.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our semi-retired interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
