14 DAY TRIAL // The development team at the newly formed The Astronauts studio have revealed that their first video game will not be a shooter, but that it will use the Unreal Engine 3 technology, with a launch expected to take place during 2013.
A blog post on the official site of the company reads, “Guys, we are not making a shooter. Let us repeat that: we are not making a shooter. And it’s actually silly to talk about ‘yet another Unreal Engine game’ when some of the best, most unique games in the world are made with exactly that particular tech (Bioshock, Mass Effect, Dishonored, etc).”
The team at The Astronauts is made up of people who have previously been part of the People Can Fly studio, which created Bulletstorm in collaboration with Epic Games.
This relation has prompted some to speculate that The Astronauts would be working with Cliff Bleszinski, who also recently left Epic Games and his much loved Gears of War franchise, but the team has denied the rumors.
They also explain why they are not using Kickstarter, adding, “Kickstarter is not just a fantastic funding platform, but also a highly effective marketing tool (whether we like it or not). But we would have a hard time explaining our first game to the public without having it half done already.”
The Astronauts believe that their game is fairly unique and that it would be hard to explain it to the public before a significant part of the development process is complete.
The team has not explained which publisher they are working with for the new project and has not revealed whether their new game will be offered on next-generation consoles or on the familiar triad of PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
Epic Games and People Can Fly have not yet revealed whether they are planning a sequel to Bulletstorm.