With Double Helix Games having been acquired by Amazon, who’s taking over for the rest of Killer Instinct’s development? That would be DiveKick developer Iron Galay Studios, Polygon reveals in an article published today.
You can find a roundup of the latest information surrounding Killer Instinct – including the game’s new developer and Fulgore title update – below.
- “probably the biggest thing we’ve ever done.”
“This is an amazing opportunity to work on a game and a genre we are super passionate about. Before we were ever talking about this, I was a fan of the game. And to get to now take it over and start with this great base, and expand it and put new stuff on top of it, everyone in the company is super pumped up, and we can’t wait to show people what we’re going to be doing down the road.”
- Double Helix is currently finishing up Killer Instinct’s first season of content
- This includes the 8th character add-on Fulgore
- Fulgore due out on April 9
- Update will also add Arcade Mode and online lobbies featuring eight-player rooms and spectating functionality
- Double Helix has also been helping to bring Iron Galaxy up to speed on Killer Instinct
- 10 individuals from the studio flew out to Double Helix earlier this month and spent a week there to familiarize themselves with the company’s existing development tools and pipelines
- Iron Galaxy originally pitched itself to Microsoft as a company that could take on Killer Instinct
- At the time, the studio was already working on its first original game Wreckateer and didn’t have the team size to handle both projects simultaneously
“I was always kind of bummed out about it. It’s, like, the one that got away.”
- Iron Galaxy was contacted by Microsoft about 4 months ago
- Lang wasn’t aware of Amazon’s plans to buy Double Helix
- Microsoft said it was looking to transition Killer Instinct to a new developer and asked if he was still interested
“I immediately jumped at it. There’s nothing we were going to not do to work on it next.”
- Lang felt some trepidation about “[stepping] on another developer’s toes”
- Double Helix and Microsoft have had an “amicable parting of ways,”
- The studio has been “really good at handing off stuff to us and giving us a push”
“It’s been a privilege to work with our partners at Microsoft to help bring back Killer Instinct. Throughout production, we’ve been inspired by players and fans to make KI the best it can be. Now, we’re excited to join that community, eager to see what the talented team at Iron Galaxy turns loose for season 2.” – Double Helix rep
- Not talking about specific plans that Microsoft and Iron Galaxy have for Killer Instinct
- The game won’t be turned into something completely different
- Iron Galaxy likely wouldn’t have signed on if the people at the studio weren’t already big fans of what Double Helix accomplishe
- The studio “destroyed” its two main goals: to make a “tournament-credible” fighting game and make it accessible at the same time
“If we were going to work on this game and go, ‘Oh, we want to change everything,’ if we were in that position, it’d be a mess. I’m not sure if we would have taken the gig,” said Lang. “What they have is not [broken]. What they have is amazing, and it’s good, and we just want to layer new stuff on top of that that keeps the pace intact.”
- Microsoft Studios has built “a big internal team” to support Killer Instinct
- He’s been really happy with the publisher’s approach, because the people there understand Iron Galaxy’s strengths and are letting the studio do things its own way
“The thing I like about working with Microsoft is, once they get what you’re about, they don’t try to make you do stuff you’re not comfortable with. They could have [come] in and they could have been like, ‘Listen, here’s — we’re going to do X, Y and Z because we know that works, blah, blah, blah.’ They didn’t do that at all, and, because of that, that makes the pressure of working on something this big, it makes it bearable.”
- Lang believes that Iron Galaxy’s particular history makes the company poised to succeed now with Killer Instinct
“This is now a title with some prestige. This is, like, probably — I think it’s probably the biggest thing we’ve ever done, like, the most important game we’ve ever worked on. I feel like, as a company, we’ve been doing a lot of really cool work to get to this point, and I think this is our chance to shine.”
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