I’m sure everyone remembers ntkrnl’s posts a while back.
After being verified, some things turned out to be true, including Respawn’s Titanfall LE Xbox One.
However, one particular post mentioned a certain Crackdown 3.
So, considering the legitimacy of some of these other ‘leaks’, I did some digging into Cloudgine. As most know, it’s headed up by David Jones, co-creator of Crackdown. The studio itself describes itself as...
What some people might not be aware of is that the rest of the studio appears to be mostly staffed up by engineers and producers from Realtime Worlds, creators of the original Crackdown.
Now, the apparent lack of any designers/artists, along with the self-described company biography, may lead some to believe that Cloudgine is more of a technology company than a game developer. But there are some telling signs that there may be more to this than meets the eye...
Now for privacy reasons, I'm not going to link to anyone in particular (you can look for yourself if you want) – but a bunch of Cloudgine employees seem to follow (and be followed by) the same groups of people on Twitter, most notably, key employees in publishing and production roles from Microsoft Studios and engine and licensing staffers from Epic Games, creators of Unreal Engine 4 – oh, and also a certain studio you may have heard of: Ruffian Games, creators of Crackdown 2.
Considering ntkrnl's claims seem to be turning true, as of late, his note that Cloudgine and Microsoft recently reached a deal looks, at first glance, to corroborate with the above. If we assume that Cloudgine is mostly technology focused, working closely with Microsoft Studios and Unreal Engine 4, then we could assume another studio is handling the creative side. An obvious choice here would be Ruffian Games – members of the original Crackdown team are still there.
In the past, Ruffian's denied they're working on Crackdown 3. However, ntkrnl's claims suggesting a deal was struck 'last year' wouldn't necessarily contradict Ruffian's earlier denial in 2013.
So to recap, Microsoft allegedly struck a deal with David Jones' technology company last year, made up of ex-Realtime Worlds employees. This company appears to have ties with Microsoft, Epic, and Ruffian Games.
So where does that leave Ruffian? If they're handling creative and Cloudgine are handling technology on, we'd have to at least assume they're working with Unreal Engine 4, right?
Turns out they are. And on a "next-generation action-adventure game", no less – the very category Crackdown won a BAFTA for in 2007.
There's a lot of pieces to the puzzle here. But could they all be adding up?
What do we think, agents? Is there something to all this nonsense or are we just chasing orbs?
Guess we'll find out soon enough.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Updates
#1
#2
#3
Cloud...? Halo...?!
#4
After being verified, some things turned out to be true, including Respawn’s Titanfall LE Xbox One.
However, one particular post mentioned a certain Crackdown 3.
So, considering the legitimacy of some of these other ‘leaks’, I did some digging into Cloudgine. As most know, it’s headed up by David Jones, co-creator of Crackdown. The studio itself describes itself as...
What some people might not be aware of is that the rest of the studio appears to be mostly staffed up by engineers and producers from Realtime Worlds, creators of the original Crackdown.
Now, the apparent lack of any designers/artists, along with the self-described company biography, may lead some to believe that Cloudgine is more of a technology company than a game developer. But there are some telling signs that there may be more to this than meets the eye...
Now for privacy reasons, I'm not going to link to anyone in particular (you can look for yourself if you want) – but a bunch of Cloudgine employees seem to follow (and be followed by) the same groups of people on Twitter, most notably, key employees in publishing and production roles from Microsoft Studios and engine and licensing staffers from Epic Games, creators of Unreal Engine 4 – oh, and also a certain studio you may have heard of: Ruffian Games, creators of Crackdown 2.
Considering ntkrnl's claims seem to be turning true, as of late, his note that Cloudgine and Microsoft recently reached a deal looks, at first glance, to corroborate with the above. If we assume that Cloudgine is mostly technology focused, working closely with Microsoft Studios and Unreal Engine 4, then we could assume another studio is handling the creative side. An obvious choice here would be Ruffian Games – members of the original Crackdown team are still there.
In the past, Ruffian's denied they're working on Crackdown 3. However, ntkrnl's claims suggesting a deal was struck 'last year' wouldn't necessarily contradict Ruffian's earlier denial in 2013.
So to recap, Microsoft allegedly struck a deal with David Jones' technology company last year, made up of ex-Realtime Worlds employees. This company appears to have ties with Microsoft, Epic, and Ruffian Games.
So where does that leave Ruffian? If they're handling creative and Cloudgine are handling technology on, we'd have to at least assume they're working with Unreal Engine 4, right?
Turns out they are. And on a "next-generation action-adventure game", no less – the very category Crackdown won a BAFTA for in 2007.
There's a lot of pieces to the puzzle here. But could they all be adding up?
Phil Spencer said:
What do we think, agents? Is there something to all this nonsense or are we just chasing orbs?
Guess we'll find out soon enough.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Updates
#1
#2
Source | Thanks, killervielEurogamer said:
#3
Cloud...? Halo...?!
#4
So thuway literally just tweeted this:
That's now two independent sources verifying that Crackdown 3 is in development at Cloudgine.
