Last night, Mike Morhaime’s new outfit, Dreamhaven, revealed multiple new games in development, at least one of which touches the orbit of the MMO genre even if it isn’t squarely within it.
The new game is called Wildgate, and it’s a a “crew-based first-person shooter set in the far reaches of space” that “combines action-packed emergent gameplay with explosive spaceship combat for a galactically fresh take on the multiplayer genre.” Players will select from a batch of characters for what kinda sounds like ship-based co-op extraction gameplay, though the devs aren’t actually calling it that.
“In Wildgate, players (called ‘Prospectors’) team up in small crews to venture into a hostile, unpredictable, and mysterious region of space in search of an ancient relic known as the Artifact. While in pursuit of the Artifact, players work together to pilot their spacecraft, plunder wreckage, and discover forgotten loot. To win, crews must successfully reach the exit point with the Artifact or go for a domination victory by destroying all rival ships by whatever means necessary.”
The studio developing the game, Moonshot Games, is one of several studios led or staffed by former Blizzard devs who clearly have a connection with Dreamhaven boss Mike Morhaime, the former president of Blizzard. Moonshot is headed up by Blizzard alums Jason Chayes, Dustin Browder, and Ben Thompson, who between them worked on World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, Hearthstone, and StarCraft 2.
Launch is expected in 2025 on Steam as well as PS5 and Xbox X|S; signups for the April 10th-14th playtest are already available.
