2K Games launches a new studio, Hangar 13

[Infinitron]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-12-04-2k-launches-new-studio-hangar-13

2K launches new studio Hangar 13
Helmed by former Star Wars producer Haden Blackman.

2K has formed an all new San Francisco-based studio entitled Hangar 13, publisher Take-Two has announced.

Haden Blackman.

Led by former LucasArts' Star Wars executive producer and writer Haden Blackman, Hangar 13 is working on an as-of-yet unannounced next-generation title.

Blackman led development on many Star Wars projects, but his most well known work is penning the script for The Force Unleashed and its sequel, though he also played a heavy hand in producing Star Wars: Galaxies.

Outside of video games, Blackman is known as a comic book scribe, who's penned DC's recent Batwoman run and he's currently writing Elektra for Marvel. He certainly sounds like a busy man.

"At Hangar 13, our mantra is 'Every player story is unique,'" said Blackman. "Our ambition is to create next-generation games that allow players to shape their own experiences, from the moment-to-moment gameplay, to the long-term impact on the world, characters and narrative. To realise this goal, we're building proprietary technology and assembling a core team passionate about delivering mature experiences loaded with meaningful choices."

"It was an easy choice bringing on a talented creative mind and proven leader like Haden Blackman to head our new 2K studio," said 2K president Christoph Hartmann. "Under Blackman's direction, Hangar 13 will lead the charge in creating some of the most memorable AAA experiences of this generation."

RPS has some analysis: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/12/04/2k-next-bioshock/

OK, normally “human being accepts new job at large company” isn’t our sort of news, unless it’s a really big name. The creative lead on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed perhaps doesn’t make it onto any auteur lists (though he has worked on enough other Star Wars games to fill a few Sandcrawlers), but Haden Blackman fetching up at 2K is fascinating because… well, what’s going on at 2K? Where are the big games going to come from in a post-Irrational (as-was) world? Well, perhaps from Hangar 13, a new 2K internal studio whose stated intention is “delivering mature experiences loaded with meaningful choices.” Reading between the lines: 2K wants its next BioShock.

(By which I mean, its next BioShock in terms of repute and – ugh – demographics, rather than its next BioShock sequel. That’s coming from BioShock 2 devs 2K Marin, apparently).

2K has generated a number of highly ambitious ‘grown-up’ (for lack of a better term) action games over the last few years, to mixed critical and commercial success for sure, but there has been less franchise laurel-resting than some of the other big studios. The question is, where are those games going to come from next? Let’s have a quick tally:

Ken Levine has essentially closed Irrational in favour of doing something pseudo-indie (albeit within the 2K safety net); Mafia devs 2K Czech (formerly Illusion Softworks) got semi-squished and relocated earlier this year; 2K Marin lost many of its senior staff and seemed to be on life support for a time (though has been given the keys to BioShock castle); Yager didn’t return after Spec Ops: The Line; 2K Australia most recently did the heavy lifting of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel rather than their own thing.

The exact current circumstances of most of those studios are currently not public, so any one of them could be put back on their feet and tasked with something huge, but from the outside looking in it’s certainly hard to tell where 2K’s next mega-franchise would arise from.

There are a number of other studios, including in Shanghai and Vegas, and current partnerships with the likes of Gearbox (Borderlands) and Turtle Rock (Evolve), but it’s perhaps hard to identify quite where the next self-made, wholly-owned big-hitter would emerge from. (Firaxis broke out of their traditional strategy box with XCOM, something of a crossover hit, but gods willing they’re not going to be told to go make first-person shooters any time soon.) Perhaps it will be Hangar 13, which is based out of 2K HQ’s town of Novato, California.

 

[Spectacle]

The current generation of consoles was just released last year, and they've already started developing games for the next generation!

 

[Metro]

Wasn't Force Unleashed a movie strung together with some shitty combat?