Kalypso Media has a new publishing label. Kobalt Games is Kalypso’s new digital-first division, and it plans to release its first game later this year.
Kobalt is working with German developer Deck 13 Interactive to release action role-playing game Blood Knights on Windows, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network in the next three months.
Kalypso is best known for publishing games like banana republic city builder Tropico. It will continue to produce those types of full-priced, physical retail games while using Kobalt to attack the market for digital-only, lower priced games.
“With the founding of our new ‘digital-first’ division, Kobalt Games, we create a clear and direct-to-consumer purchasing channel,” Kalypso Media global managing director Simon Hellwig said in a statement. “The Kalypso brand will continue to publish premium full-price titles such Tropico 5 and The Dark Eye: Demonicon, which will be released simultaneously via digital distribution and boxed retail, while Kobalt will offer midpriced, high quality titles to our audience.”
Blood Knights is a hack-n-slash action game. It puts players in the middle of an age-old war between humans and vampires. It looks similar to Diablo and features a single-player campaign and co-op modes. It’s $30.
“With Blood Knight, we have our first title in the Kobalt Games lineup,” Kalypso Media global managing director Stefan Marcinek said. “We are sending a clear signal that we are committed to publishing high quality titles in the midprice range.”