Vanguard: Remedy partners with Tencent for co-op multiplayer game
Remedy Entertainment, the company behind the hit sci-fi action-adventure Control, has announced a new game, codenamed Vanguard. Not to be confused with Activision’s Call of Duty: Vanguard, Remedy’s secret title is a free-to-play, co-operative PvE shooter. The game is said to combine “Remedy’s narrative expertise and action gameplay into an immersive multiplayer experience.”
Vanguard is Remedy’s first foray into the games-as-a-service model which is always a risky venture. Remedy says the development budget up to the end of the first year of live operations will be “in the range of a typical Remedy AAA game budget.”
Remedy will attempt to offset some of this financial risk with a partnership with Chinese technological conglomerate Tencent, which will co-finance this development. Remedy will develop and publish the game worldwide, except for select Asian markets where Tencent will localize and publish the game. Both Remedy and Tencent are responsible for their own publishing and game operating costs in their respective territories, while also sharing a portion of revenue to the other after recouping development costs.
Additionally, Remedy has licensed the worldwide rights to develop and publish a mobile version of Vanguard to Tencent. While Tencent will cover the costs associated with developing and publishing this mobile version, a separate revenue sharing plan has been agreed upon.
Not that it matters to Remedy or Tencent, but I see this as a win-win for both companies. As I mentioned, games-as-a-service titles are a risky investment. Not only is it a saturated market, but very few developers are capable of pulling it off successfully.
Not to mention, games-as-a-service have developed a bad reputation. Most of this negative reputation is due to an over-emphasis on monetization and trend-chasing, or releasing a game in an unfinished state despite the full price tag. Fallout 76, Anthem and Marvel’s Avengers are just some of the flops that come to mind.
But there are some examples of successful games-as-a-service. Fortnite, Overwatch, The Division and Warframe are some good examples of GaaS done right. These are polished and don’t feel like you’re being nickeled-and-dimed at every corner.
The fact that Remedy remains the sole developer and publisher for Vanguard across most of the world, at least gives me partial optimism that this game won’t be a complete rip-off. Vanguard is currently in the proof-of-concept phase with plans for development with the Unreal Engine for PC and console platforms.