Veterans from EA, Naughty Dog or Infinity Ward open the -apkrig studio
Stories of brand new studios with great ambitions, established by veterans since the development of the biggest and most famous games, are full of history. The interestingness of such an announcement often foreshadows what kind of veterans it is, or what they want to deal with with the new team, and usually similar reports do not spare superlatives and more or less open remarks that the planned project would in a large corporation it could not have arisen. In general, these conditions are also met by the vision of the new studio That’s No Moon, which was founded in Los Angeles by developers from companies such as Naughty Dog, Electronic Arts, Infinity Ward, Bungie and Sony Santa Monica. Among the specific names are Taylor Kurosaki, lead designer Crashe Bandicoota and screenwriter Uncharted 2 and 3, respectively. Jacob Minkoff, lead designer of Uncharted 3 and the first part of The Last of Us. The two also worked together in Infinity Ward on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare from 2019, where they served as design director and lead screenwriter.
We’re making a AAA singleplayer narrative-driven action-adventure game with a boatload of veteran developers from TLoU, Uncharted, God of War, Modern Warfare, Destiny, and more! Looking for diverse talent in both leadership and entry-level positions. Who’s down to help? pic.twitter.com/eNfH1kUa5O
— Jacob Minkoff (@JacobMinkoff) July 28, 2021
It is also interesting that together with them he founded the studio Michael Mumbauer, who also became the first CEO. Mumbauer’s name can be seen from the extensive stories from Sony San Diego, or rather Visual Arts Service Group, where he was to leave because Sony headquarters decided not to entrust the San Diego team with its own large project and keep it under the roof of PlayStation Studios as the series developer. MLB: The Show, but mainly as a support group for all other studios. Other names include Tina Kowalewski, who worked for Journey and God of War, for example, or Nick Kononelos, who oversaw the development of Need for Speed and the Madden NFL series at Electronic Arts. Almost everyone comes to That’s No Moon from really high positions, which does not automatically guarantee a result in the form of a quality game, but at least experience in managing a large team and working on AAA projects.
However, everything will depend on whether the planned 100 employees will suffice and, of course, how interesting the ideas will be behind the first project.
However, the interest in the studio does not end there – the ambition to create a story action adventure, which is to be the first project of the studio, underlines the provision of a truly monstrous investment of $ 100 million from the South Korean company Smilgate, the authors of the Crossfire shooter. Just for context, we add that such or even lower budget, including marketing costs, had titles such as Max Payne 3, Tomb Raider, the first Red Dead Redemption, Sorcerer 3, Watch Dogs, Heavy Rain or LA Noire, and it was always very ambitious and at the time recognized titles with which the new project from That’s No Moon can potentially be compared. However, everything will depend on whether the planned 100 employees will suffice and, of course, how interesting the ideas will be behind the first project. Michael Mumbauer has so far vaguely remarked that he would like the players to think about the story games of his new studio long after they have seen the closing credits, but nothing specific is understandably on the table.
However, the first 27 positions are open, mainly for the heads of individual departments, and it is expected that other positions will be filled gradually until next year. Even taking into account that the game can currently only exist in the minds of these developers, it will probably take several years before we can watch the first trailer and find out the details. Already, however, That’s No Moon reckons that their games will cross the boundaries of video games and could gradually be transformed into series or even movies.
