Yesterday, when I was checking the latest news on Gamer.nl, I spotted a nice article about the possible return of Wolfenstein. Since most of you are not Dutch, here’s a rough translation:
In april the news came out that Human Head Studios had problems with Zenimax, the parent company of publisher Bethesda. They stopped working on Prey 2 to demand a better deal. It was not clear if Prey 2 would be taken over by a different studio working for Bethesda. All of their studios, except for one, are busy. Id Software is working on Rage/Doom, Bethesda Softworks are probably working on Fallout 4 [not confirmed], Tango Studios is working on Project Zwei, Arkane is busy with Dishonored and Splash Damage is working on two different free-to-play titles and a iOS game. There’s only one Bethesda studio left, Machinegames from Sweden.
Zenimax bought the company in 2010. The press release stated that the company was formed out of the original founders of Starbreeze [Escape from Butcher Bay, The Darkness] and that it’s working on a multiplatform title for Bethesda. It’s also stated that they are using the new Id-tech 5 technology. Which means they are working on something for 2,5 years now.
So what are they working on?
Just before the E3 the news came out that the rights to Wolfenstein.com are being transferred from Activision to Zenimax. Timing was perfect. Because of the E3, almost nobody picked this up. A month ago, in honor of its 20th year anniversary, Bethesda released a special version of Wolfenstein 3D which is playable in browsers. A great way to see if there’s still interest. Because the last Wolfenstein game was not well received.
So you got a new studio, that has experience with first person shooters, working with Id-Tech 5 on a unannounced game for a publisher who’s just putting some spotlight back on a legendary franchise. You do the math.
