Artplant, a study founded by Innerloop veterans, have acquired the rights to develop future titles in the Project IGI series from Square Enix.
Project I.G.I was a military shooter from developer Innerloop Studios which was published and distributed by Eidos Interactive. The original entry in the series launched in 2000 for PC – I remember a vastly younger version of myself was extremely impressed because the game totally had ziplines, which was apparently a big deal back then.
The game spawned a sequel a few years later with the same development studio, but in that strange IP-licensing, publishers, developers dance of the 90s and 00s way, Codemasters was publisher; Innerloop Studios shut its doors a few months after release.
As is the way of things, when Square Enix acquired the ailing Eidos back in 2009 it also gained most of the companies IPs, from internally developed titles through to IPs acquired through distribution and publishing deals; we’re talking from Commandos to Project I.G.I, from Deus Ex to Fear Effect, from Legacy of Kain to Gangsters (somebody please remake Gangsters).
While Eidos were on the cusp of seeing several projects launching at point of acquisition, it’s hard to deny that Square Enix have done very well with some of the titles they gained from their legacy. They’ve also allowed studios the chance to use the IPs that they don’t intend to use via their Square Enix Collective initiative; which has recently, amongst the plethora of unique IPs, seen a new Fear Effect title overseen by them.
Artplant (Grimm: Dark Legacy, Battlestar Galactica Online, etc), as explained by Gameindustry.biz, were founded between the series’ two outings by members of Innerloop’s team. The team’s CEO, Jack Wulff, stated that this marked out the start of a shift from “making games for publishers to producing and owning our games.” — This remark in no doubt referential to their work with the Grimm, G I Joe, and Battlestar Galactica IPs.
There’s zero word on a new title for now, all of that said, and it’s definitely not all going to kick off with a remaster or reboot, as Square Enix still own the publishing rights to the earliest title as part of the deal. Meanwhile, Codemasters still have the sequel available for sale over on GOG.
Source, Gamesindustry.biz, via 4players.de
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