Smilegate and Absurd Ventures announced today that they have signed a deal to publish the latter’s upcoming game, which is set in its A Better Paradise universe. Smilegate has previously invested in Absurd Ventures, which was founded by Rockstar Games cofounder Dan Houser. As part of that investment, Smilegate had the opportunity to partner on Absurd’s new intellectual property.
The unnamed game is still early in development, led by Greg Borrud, formerly of Niantic and Pandemic Studios. At present, Absurd is building out the development team, with some of the current members having experience at Bungie, Riot, Treyarch and others. It will follow up on Absurd’s A Better Paradise audio fiction series and subsequent novelization.
Houser said in a statement, “Absurd Ventures was set up to tell new and different kinds of stories, and to create what I hope are interesting and compelling original experiences. This new game is an opportunity to go somewhere entirely different and to take players on an entirely new adventure. I am excited to be going on this journey with the amazing team that we are building here at Absurd Ventures and am grateful that we are partnering with Smilegate who really understand and support our vision.”
Sung Joon-ho, Smilegate CEO, added, “We are thrilled to take on this new challenge in the global AAA game market alongside Dan Houser and Absurd. We are confident that the strong storytelling of the ABP universe combined with the development capabilities of the Absurd team will result in an outstanding title. We are a company with a developer-first DNA and truly understand what development studios need.”