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Starbreeze Talks Expanding Scope of Project RedLime, Developing Downloadable Game

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Please, please, please, please be the rumored reboot of Syndicate.

Just after Brad and I finished speculating about what Starbreeze might be working on next during this week's Bombcast, the Swedish developer has started talking a bit more about its mysterious Project RedLime.

As pointed out by Internet sleuth superannuation, Starbreeze is a publicly traded company in Sweden, which means the developer must issue financial statements on a regular basis. Given Starbreeze's main source of income is games, its latest statement does talk a fair bit about Starbreeze's gaming plans.

What little we know about Project RedLime involves continued rumors about a Syndicate reboot. The Syndicate rumors stem from the original project announcement, which called for Electronic Arts and Starbreeze to collaborate on something "to reinvent one of EA's most acclaimed classic franchises."

EA and Starbreeze have apparently decided to expand "scope" of Project RedLime. I've used Google to translate Starbreeze's Swedish-laden financial documents, by the way, so excuse the garbled English.

== TEASER ==

"The reason for our joint decision is above all that we wish to implement a number of creative enhancements, we want simply [to] do an even better game," said CEO Mikael Nermark. "It also requires an expansion of the project because of the high staff turnover during the autumn and winter, as we have previously reported. It has taken time and resources to recruit key employees, while it takes time for new developers to come into the project. We have now secured the [manpower for] RedLime."

It's still unclear when we'll hear about Project RedLime, but hey, E3 is just a few weeks away...

In addition to Project Redlime, Starbreeze has been self-funding a downloadable game.

"The gaming industry is [in the] midst of an interesting and tumultuous phase of great changes [for] both publishers [and] game developers, as well as in the distribution chain, with more focus on including downloadable games," said Nermark. "We must, of course, adapt to changing market conditions. We will continue to do AAA games and we should more often work with new business models for small downloadable games."

Makes sense. Unfortunately, nowhere in the document does it say Starbreeze has decided to hijack development of The Darkness 2. Having just finished playing The Darkness, that really bums me out.

Patrick Klepek on Google+
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Starbreeze Studios AB
35 Comments
Posted by patrickklepek

Just after Brad and I finished speculating about what Starbreeze might be working on next during this week's Bombcast, the Swedish developer has started talking a bit more about its mysterious Project RedLime.

As pointed out by Internet sleuth superannuation, Starbreeze is a publicly traded company in Sweden, which means the developer must issue financial statements on a regular basis. Given Starbreeze's main source of income is games, its latest statement does talk a fair bit about Starbreeze's gaming plans.

What little we know about Project RedLime involves continued rumors about a Syndicate reboot. The Syndicate rumors stem from the original project announcement, which called for Electronic Arts and Starbreeze to collaborate on something "to reinvent one of EA's most acclaimed classic franchises."

EA and Starbreeze have apparently decided to expand "scope" of Project RedLime. I've used Google to translate Starbreeze's Swedish-laden financial documents, by the way, so excuse the garbled English.

== TEASER ==

"The reason for our joint decision is above all that we wish to implement a number of creative enhancements, we want simply [to] do an even better game," said CEO Mikael Nermark. "It also requires an expansion of the project because of the high staff turnover during the autumn and winter, as we have previously reported. It has taken time and resources to recruit key employees, while it takes time for new developers to come into the project. We have now secured the [manpower for] RedLime."

It's still unclear when we'll hear about Project RedLime, but hey, E3 is just a few weeks away...

In addition to Project Redlime, Starbreeze has been self-funding a downloadable game.

"The gaming industry is [in the] midst of an interesting and tumultuous phase of great changes [for] both publishers [and] game developers, as well as in the distribution chain, with more focus on including downloadable games," said Nermark. "We must, of course, adapt to changing market conditions. We will continue to do AAA games and we should more often work with new business models for small downloadable games."

Makes sense. Unfortunately, nowhere in the document does it say Starbreeze has decided to hijack development of The Darkness 2. Having just finished playing The Darkness, that really bums me out.

Staff
Posted by allenibrahim

sweet

Posted by yoshimitz707

Interesting.

Edited by BaconGames

I love the concept of rather esoteric properties given a fair shake in the modern day.  Good examples of that would be Fallout, X-Com, and the Shock series (with BioShock as a half-step in that direction).

Posted by Delphye

Give digital extremes a chance. I have a feeling they're going to shock the gaming world with how impressive The Darkness 2 will be.


I can't seem to stop lying...
Posted by mbkish

Okay, well lets hope the downloadable game is good and RedLime is actually the Syndicate reboot.

Posted by Jimbo

Didn't the Paradox CEO basically reveal Redlime as being Syndicate/GTA the other day?

Posted by dvorak
@Jimbo said:
Didn't the Paradox CEO basically reveal Redlime as being Syndicate/GTA the other day?
I hadn't heard this. How is Paradox involved with Starbreeze?
Posted by SomeDeliCook

I really like Starbreeze. I wish they were making The Darkness 2. They have a certain touch to their games noone else can tap into.

Then again, it'd be nice if they were to work on their combat. Shooting in their games is always the weak point for me.
Posted by Cold_Wolven

It sucks they are not making The Darkness II but having seen a gameplay demo it looks really good regardless. Hope Starbreeze make an awesome AAA game whether it be The Syndicate or anything.

Posted by StingingVelvet

Syndicate was one of my favorite games as a teenager.  It's one of the holy grails for PC gamers, and after playing both Riddick games I can say I trust Starbreeze to do it well.  Shame The Darkness never came to the PC, I would love to own that.

Edited by MrKlorox

Wouldn't it be funny if a reboot of Road Rash made it out before this game since the speculation was pretty split between that and Syndicate when Red Lime was announced.

However I'm still into this game. Open world games are my favorite, and since Stalker I've been more interested in the first person variety. While playing The Darkness, I remember all I could think of was how awesome it would be if the game had an open world. Let's hope that's what the "expanded scope" means.

Posted by djaoni
@StingingVelvet said:
Syndicate was one of my favorite games as a teenager.  It's one of the holy grails for PC gamers, and after playing both Riddick games I can say I trust Starbreeze to do it well.  Shame The Darkness never came to the PC, I would love to own that.
Apparently it's a third-person shooter..

Might as well not be a Syndicate game.
Posted by Jimbo
@dvorak said:
@Jimbo said:
Didn't the Paradox CEO basically reveal Redlime as being Syndicate/GTA the other day?
I hadn't heard this. How is Paradox involved with Starbreeze?
They're Swedebros.

Source - penultimate paragraph.
Posted by StingingVelvet
@djaoni said:
@StingingVelvet said:
Syndicate was one of my favorite games as a teenager.  It's one of the holy grails for PC gamers, and after playing both Riddick games I can say I trust Starbreeze to do it well.  Shame The Darkness never came to the PC, I would love to own that.
Apparently it's a third-person shooter..

Might as well not be a Syndicate game.
There's more to a game than the combat mechanics... if they can capture the world and style I'll be happy.  Similar to Fallout: New Vegas.
Posted by dvorak
@Jimbo: That's awesome. I love Paradox. Finding out that they name all their projects after Kevin Costner films is just amazing.
Posted by dagas
Starbreeze logo
Is it just me who sees the Starbreeze logo as a bunch of sperms swimming into a smiley face rather than a picture of a star?
Posted by PKHilson

BREEZY!!

Posted by Xpgamer7

I can't wait for whatever they come out with.

Posted by Rolyatkcinmai

I hear good things about Starbreeze. Might have to finally play one of the Starbreeze games I own.

Posted by popmasterruler

Stop working on  Project RedLime Starbreeze and get back The Darkness license and make the sequel yourself!

Posted by Tebbit

I would kill any one of you for a new Syndicate game. Even you, @patrickklepek !!!

Posted by Amphetama

Can. Not. Wait.

Posted by BjornTheUnicorn

I'm just about 100% sure that it's the Syndicate reboot. 

Posted by 2HeadedNinja

If they are working on a Syndicate remake I hope they won't skip PC as it has become popular ... that would be a bummer.

Posted by Olivaw

Wait, how is this not a Command and Conquer reboot?

Because that's what I think of when I hear "reinvent one of EA's most acclaimed classic franchises."

Besides, wasn't there only one Syndicate game ever? Why would they start paying attention to that series NOW?

Edited by avantegardener

Curious and curiouser, I'd love to see a syndicate reboot, the agent selection, and team loadout mechanics were very compelling at the time. I enjoyed the Darkness, so it would interesting to see what they would do with the license .

Posted by Fistfulofmetal

I kind of hope Starbreeze does another Riddick game.

Edited by mekon
@Olivaw: There were two: Syndicate and Syndicate Wars, both RTS. One way in which they differ is that the sequel Syndicate Wars allowed you to rotate the landscape so you could see behind buildings, whereas Syndicate had a fixed viewpoint and a key that made the buildings transparent IIRC. Another game I'd like to see remade is Magic Carpet, although it still works with Dosbox.
Posted by klinkcow

very underrated developer, for sure

Posted by blacklab

I've really enjoyed all of their games thus far. Looking forward to more.

Posted by theberserker
@popmasterruler said:
Stop working on  Project RedLime Starbreeze and get back The Darkness license and make the sequel yourself!
2K owns the rights and so they'll give it to whatever dev they want
Posted by RobertOrri

Digital Extremes + The Darkness = I'm sad

Edited by fisk0
@StingingVelvet said:

@djaoni said:

@StingingVelvet said:

Syndicate was one of my favorite games as a teenager.  It's one of the holy grails for PC gamers, and after playing both Riddick games I can say I trust Starbreeze to do it well.  Shame The Darkness never came to the PC, I would love to own that.
Apparently it's a third-person shooter..
Might as well not be a Syndicate game.
There's more to a game than the combat mechanics... if they can capture the world and style I'll be happy.  Similar to Fallout: New Vegas.
I'm hoping for something in the Rainbow Six or SOCOM style myself. The original games had a rather limited scope, with 4 or so operatives in each mission if I recall correctly, that would translate pretty well to a squad based third person shooter I think, though of course we all want to see a modern take on the isometric strategy game genre.

The Darkness is in my opinion pretty much this console generation's Deus Ex, it had somewhat janky gameplay but a wonderful setting with exactly the right kind of atmosphere and lightning. While much more contemporary than Syndicate or Deus Ex (it takes place in the late 90's or something, doesn't it?), that is pretty much the kind of environments you want in a cyberpunk game.

Swedish gaming press have been pointing out that very few of the guys from The Darkness and the Riddick games are still on the team though, so you might not want to get your hopes up too much. Still, I've been a fan of Starbreeze since the FastTracker days.
Posted by StingingVelvet
@fisk0: I really need to play The Darkness.  Maybe I can borrow a friend's console for a weekend or something.