Video Games
Sci-Fi Horror Game ‘INTERPOINT’ Receiving Overhaul Next Month
Released in Early Access back in April 2019, Three Dots’ sci-fi adventure horror game INTERPOINT will be receiving a massive overhaul in January. According to the latest entry on the game’s Steam page, the team has grown unsatisfied with the alpha, and has spent the past year and a half reworking the game.
According to the announcement, after becoming dissatisfied with the alpha build of the game, Three Dots “concluded that everything needs to be changed.” Their initial approach didn’t produce the expected results, resulting in the team having to “rethink the project and our approach to its development altogether.”
“Over the past 1.5 years, our three-person team has reimagined every part of the game and re-created it. We redesigned all levels, many aspects of the gameplay, puzzles, changed the visual style and effects, and most of the plot to make INTERPOINT better and more interesting.”
The resultant “re-imagining” is the major update, which encompasses Episodes 1-3 of INTERPOINT. You can get a peek at the overhaul in the teaser below.
INTERPOINT puts you in the role of Harry German, a scientist working for Delta Labs. In the early 2020s, Delta Labs created the Quantum Entanglement Device, which allows portals to be opened to countless parallel universes. However, all of the other worlds discovered were either an almost exact copy of ours, or completely surreal worlds with unknown creatures. As these things go, something goes wrong, and Harry finds himself far from home.
The rumoured cuts at Xbox have come to fruition, with plans to lay off 3,200 employees. In addition, five studios are also set to be let go, with Double Fine and South of Midnight developer Compulsion breaking off to go independent, while Ninja Theory (Senua) and Undead Labs (State of Decay 3) have been sold.
The fifth studio, Marvel’s Blade and Dishonored studio Arkane Lyon, is set to be divested from Xbox Game Studios, though details are still being kept under wraps.
Per Xbox Wire, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma confirmed the layoff and divestment plans at Xbox, but announced no plans for closures or game cancellations.
According to Sharma, Xbox is operating at “margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses.” Sharma acknowledged Xbox’s previous pivots to Game Pass, multi-platform, and a “broader portfolio of content” have resulted in “meaningful value”, but it hasn’t been enough.
“Since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last ten years combined,” she said. “We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios. It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio.”
As a result, Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions “will return to management and transition to independent studios with their IP, catalog, and runway for their next games.” Meanwhile, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs “have entered terms to join new ownership with funding to complete and grow Senua and State of Decay 3.” As for Arkane Lyon, the studio’s management “is beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options.”
The 3,200 cuts will be made throughout Xbox’s financial year across departments, with some areas being more affected than others. This is expected to affect around 20% of the developer’s workforce.
In addition, Bethesda will also undergo “a significant overhaul”, and will pivot to focus on its core franchises: Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein. None of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions.
“These changes are about a bigger future for Xbox, not a smaller one,” says Sharma. “The next decade of gaming will be larger, more global, and more creative than anything we’ve seen before. This year, we’ll invest as much in Xbox as we ever have, but we’ll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making Xbox where the world plays and creates.”