Vanguard, Treatment’s mysterious multiplayer recreation, is being rebooted. Only a couple weeks after saying that it hoped to have the sport’s “proof-of-concept” completed by the top of the yr, the studio introduced at present that it is determined to take the venture in a complete new route, with a complete new codename.
We by no means actually realized something about what Treatment initially had in thoughts for Vanguard, besides that it was meant to be a “multiplayer dwell recreation” developed in Unreal Engine 4. The now-removed Vanguard web site (by way of the Wayback Machine) says solely that “the Vanguard workforce’s mission shall be to problem conventions and create a brand new breed of social, multiplayer Treatment experiences,” which is not a complete lot to go on.
However it would not matter now, as a result of that plan is off. Treatment mentioned the choice to reboot the sport, made after discussions with writer Tencent, got here because of “uncertainties in making a profitable recreation [due] to the quickly altering free-to-play market and related dangers.” As a substitute of free-to-play, Vanguard—now codenamed Kestrel—shall be a premium recreation, though it can retain “a robust, cooperative multiplayer part.”
“Now we have made some nice strides in free-to-play and multiplayer growth in Vanguard,” Treatment CEO Tero Virtala mentioned. “After a number of cautious consideration, we imagine that taking over a brand new route the place the sport shall be constructed extra round Treatment’s core competences is the appropriate solution to go. We’re creating one other distinct Treatment recreation with Tencent’s continued assist in making an important cooperative multiplayer expertise.”
The reboot means the venture shall be returned to the “idea part” of growth. A part of the workforce that was engaged on Vanguard shall be moved to different Treatment video games, “whereas the core management and choose members of the event workforce of Kestrel will give attention to the venture’s new route.”
Virtala warned throughout an buyers Q&A in October that the success of Alan Wake 2 may throw its deliberate schedules for future recreation releases off observe. That occurred with Management in 2019: It took longer than Treatment anticipated to begin work on Management 2 as a result of curiosity within the unique endured past what the studio had anticipated. “[Alan Wake 2 is] a possibility that we now have to keep watch over, after which consider if it can have some impact on a number of the schedules that we’ve,” Virtala mentioned.
By all appearances Alan Wake 2 is a serious success for Treatment, though there isn’t any indication that was an element within the choice to alter route with Vanguard. Regardless of the case, it appears that evidently we’ll by no means actually know what Treatment was aiming for with it—and we’ll have to begin the waiting-game clock once more for Kestrel.
