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AAA games studio emptyvessel announces establishment; developing “immersive shooter” | Featuring talent behind DOOM, Quake, Call of Duty, and more

Thick Thighs Save Lives

NeoGAF's Physical Games Advocate Extraordinaire

emptyvessel, a new independent AAA games studio formed of veteran developers based in Austin, Texas, has announced its establishment. The studio’s founding staff has worked on iconic franchises such as DOOM, Quake, Call of Duty, The Last of Us, Borderlands, Tomb Raider, The Callisto Protocol, and more. Its first title is an Unreal Engine-5 powered title that will leverage its experience in the “immersive shooter” space.
emtpyvessel is led by CEO and game director Emanual Palalic, and chief operating officer and general manager Garrett Young, who both served in critical roles at id Software. They are joined by chief technical officer Wei Ning, art director Alex Palma, animation director Rico Flores, and others.

The studio says it is “driven by its mission to make top-quality games and its passion for taking risks to create new refreshing types of entertainment experiences,” and “aims to break from the traditional business models and work together towards a common vision of a future powered by people and creativity.”

“Many game developers like myself began our journey fueled by the dream of one day bringing our worlds to life,” said emptyvessel CEO and game director Emanuel Palalic in a press release. “By prioritizing and aligning with our strengths, we’re confident it’s possible to create AAA-quality games with smaller, focused teams. The industry has often overlooked the people who pour their hearts and souls into crafting these worlds. With emptyvessel, we’re determined to change that narrative and make that dream a reality for as many developers as we can.”

emptyvessel chief operating officer and general manager Garrett Young added, “Our industry is at a crossroads between business and talent. At emptyvessel, we take a Developer-First approach to our direction and execution. We understand every innovation in this industry has been led by a developer taking a risk—every new IP, every billion-dollar franchise. Gaming’s next massive hit can come from anywhere.”

emptyvessel’s network of strategic partners include a seed funding round led by Sisu Game Ventures, with additional investments from Raptor Group, Tripwire Interactive co-owner Bill Munk, former Treyarch co-studio head Dan Bunting, Niels de Ruiter, Tommy Tran, and more.
The studio has also created an advisory board comprised of industry veterans such as Kojima Productions U.S. executive vice president Riley Russell and award-winning composer Mick Gordon (who will create soundscapes for the studio’s first project).

PETROL Advertising, which has a track record of over 2,000 successful game launches, will lead campaign, brand strategy, and go-to market planning for the studio.
 
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I don't think a studio can or should label themselves as AAA when they haven't released a single title as a studio.

Like the person above said, it will be either a really generic game or the studio will close before the game gets released.

I honestly can't believe how many idiotic people are out there starting these studios with so much 'talent' but don't start out making a smaller, lower budget title to get themselves on everyone's radar and actually make some money before going on to make a game with a huge budget. Financially the risk is just too high and I can't believe investors (which I'm assuming there must be in order to pay salaries) fall for this shit.
 

Shubh_C63

Member
Don't go gung ho. Start slow and win your audience.

Otherwise trying to break into FPS market is definitely one of the most risky proposition right now.
Survival genre is where its at right now.
 
Industry jargon that usually means "it's like Deus Ex / Bioshock". Although maybe now it means "like Escape from Tarkov" as well?
That's immersive sims, and I don't think that's what they're going for here. They explicitly say they're looking to "leverage their experience in the immersive shooter space", but none of the games they say their developers have worked on are really anything like Deus Ex or Bioshock.

I'm guessing this is going to end up being some sort of multiplayer GAAS title.
 

Bry0

Member
In 2 years “Creative director at emptyvessel leaves position, studio closure imminent?”

I hope not though, best of luck to them!
 
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Will this study be as productive as this other one?
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CamHostage

Member
I don't think a studio can or should label themselves as AAA when they haven't released a single title as a studio.

"AAA" isn't a label really, it's a designation of the product scope and the level of budget and involved technology.


Gamers can learn little, perhaps nothing, from the term "AAA" being used outside of the business to describe a game. (And it pretty much never is a term included anywhere when a game actually begins to be marketed to the gaming audience; you cannot find "AAA Only" as a tag on Steam, and if you search the Steam DB for games which reference the term "AAA", you pretty much get games by the unaptly-named AAA Game Studios or indie games with "AAA quality" in their bragging points because it sounds cool. There are one or two exceptions here or there, since the term has slipped into common parlance of gamer speak, but it's not listed on every "real AAA" game for reasonable reasons.) Unfortunately, however, it's often the first thing non-industry readers spot when they delve into industry news.
 
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CamHostage

Member
I honestly can't believe how many idiotic people are out there starting these studios with so much 'talent' but don't start out making a smaller, lower budget title to get themselves on everyone's radar and actually make some money before going on to make a game with a huge budget. Financially the risk is just too high and I can't believe investors (which I'm assuming there must be in order to pay salaries) fall for this shit.

Not everybody is comfortable working at one-man production levels. These are development leaders best at getting things done at the scale of their greatest successes, and they may be able to (and may be forced to) adapt up and down to some degree, but once you've operated as a big fish in a big pond, it's difficult and potentially counter-productive (albeit sometimes rewarding for your soul...) to go into a tiny tank.

Also, the number of investors who lose money from "falling for this shit" at high-cost levels is not necessarily any different from low-cost levels, or less rewarding. If you back somebody who has a track record, it's a smarter investment than somebody who is on their first production, and sometimes that indie will surprise you and sometimes that vet will suck out, but that's the VC game.
 

CamHostage

Member
Have any of these "Dream Team" studios ever produced anything good, though? Let alone not shut down before a product even releases?

So, the reason you hear about "Dream Team" studios a lot is because they make easy headlines and tell a story to readers more easily.

Telling people about a new studio from people who formerly worked at Naughty Dog and Id Software sparks interest more than a new studio from people who you formerly/currently have never heard of.

You also hear about the failures of "Dream Teams" more because, again, a new studio that had people who formerly worked on successful projects now having a company fail is of more interest than a new studio formed by unknowns unable to add a new success to their 0 success stories.

The ratio of successes and failures of "Dream Teams" compared to upstarts of first-time developers is, I would assume, hugely in favor of the Dream Teams. People who have had success can leverage that for financial backing and talent acquisition and publisher interest, and, at least in the early phases, they can get going at a rate difficult for startups to achieve. Pressure is on, and failure can be public, but if you've done it before, you've got some chance of doing it again. (What the actual ratio is, however, I wouldn't know how to look up or analyze, but the graveyard of failed game studios is massive if you dig into it and there's way, way more hill past the "Dream Team" burial grounds.)

...Depending on what your definition of "Dream Team" is (every start-up studio takes in talent from elsewhere, so for example Respawn started from the implosion of Infinity Ward, but Titanfall 1's Design Director came from Sony Santa Monica,) I can come up with off the top of my head Ready At Dawn, Retro Studios, Neon Giant, The Workshop (which is now Skydance Interactive, ) I believe Iron Galaxy was a combo of a few people.
 
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I honestly can't believe how many idiotic people are out there starting these studios with so much 'talent' but don't start out making a smaller, lower budget title to get themselves on everyone's radar and actually make some money before going on to make a game with a huge budget. Financially the risk is just too high and I can't believe investors (which I'm assuming there must be in order to pay salaries) fall for this shit.
c'mon, now. you're being much too rational...
 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
When companies announce they are forming and making a AAA game I know this is a marketing ploy for potential investors who only speak in this same nonsense.

Otherwise you’d be saying new studio, here’s our past work, and excited to make a new game. Period. No mention of AAA. It doesn’t need that budget to be good or successful.
 

Barakov

Member







s2XGeMv.jpg

Remember the 'The same team behind Left 4 Dead'?
Fair Point. But even bad immersive sims are at the very least interesting. At least the music and graphics will probably be on point.
 
It's really useful for studios to work on the game, and use footage of the game for PR, and not studio heads or influential people behind the team.

I'm not paying $60-$70 for you (or my time, if the wording in the press release suggests that they're swaying away from "traditional business models" and go episodic or F2P), but the product your team puts out, if it's good.

Besides, it's really an ominous sign and a huge red flag, when you just started your studio and suddenly talk about "the next billion dollar IP".

The last time a studio did that, was Boss Key Productions and CliffyB. Needless to say, that it didn't end up doing well for them...
 
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