Something Wicked Games, a brand-new studio from 15-year Bethesda Game Studios veteran Jeff Gardiner was just revealed at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live. With initial seed funding of $13.2mm from NetEase, Something Wicked Games is a new, globally dispersed AAA games studio with creative and leadership talent from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, The Outer Worlds, and more. Their first game, an open-world AAA preternatural RPG, Wyrdsong, is currently in development.
Yesterday’s announcement is coupled with an animatic teaser trailer for the studio’s first game. Wyrdsong is an occult historical fantasy RPG set in a fictionalized Portugal in the middle ages. Players will be challenged to question both their reality and the choices they make as Wyrdsong is set to expand, question, and re-define aspects of what makes up the current RPG genre.
Gardiner’s career in games boasts some of the most well-known franchises in the RPG space. Gardiner served as lead producer and project lead across several of Bethesda’s flagship titles in the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls franchises. Before making the difficult choice to leave Bethesda Game Studios following a 15-year career, Gardiner’s efforts on Fallout 76 saw its transformation into one of the most successful, robust examples of the games-as-a-service model.
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The studio’s talent roster also includes Co-Founder & Design Director Charles Staples (Obsidian Entertainment). Staples’ 15-year tenure at Obsidian was highlighted by his Design Director role on The Outer Worlds, as well as his work as Lead Level Designer on Fallout: New Vegas.
“Our goal with Something Wicked Games is to utilize our independence and creative autonomy to create the next evolution of open-world RPGs,” said Gardiner. “Our first project, Wyrdsong, has been my dream game for some time now, and I’m thrilled to finally share it today.”
Developed on Unreal Engine 5, Wyrdsong immerses fans in a dark historical fantasy where every decision has a consequence, both in this world and others yet to be discovered. Check out the announcement trailer below!
