The Hollywood movie studio behind Her, Zero Dark Thirty, and Sausage Party is starting a video game division that will focus on what it terms as “personal, emotional, and original games that push the boundaries of interactive content and encourage artists to bring new visions to the medium.”
Annapurna Interactive is the new gaming division of Annapurna Pictures, and it plans to publish two games in the spring: Jason Roberts’ Gorogoa and Giant Sparrow’s What Remains of Edith Finch. It will also release games from developer Funomena, which features Katamari Damacy’s Keita Takahashi as its creative director; and Mountains, whose team includes Ken Wong of the hit mobile game Monument Valley. Its new game studio’s leadership includes veterans of Journey, God of War, Mortal Kombat, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, Flower, and Fat Princess.
[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":2120091,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,games,media,pc-gaming,","session":"A"}']“I’ve had a great passion for video games for as long as I can remember,” said Annapurna founder and CEO Megan Ellison. “Growing up, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was one of my all-time favorites. My brother and I ran up quite a bill calling the 1-900 numbers for tips on those games, before the internet provided game-guides. The artistry and diversity of interactive storytelling is exciting, and we look forward to exploring the limitless possibilities in gaming. We want to empower artists across this medium to make Annapurna Interactive their home, and I believe we’ve assembled the perfect team to make that happen.”
Gorogoa is a hand-illustrated game where the story is “suspended inside a puzzle.” The player moves panels on a grid. What Remains of Edith Fitch is a playable batch of short stories, and each features a new art style and gameplay that draws inspiration from the cursed Fitch clan (of whom Edith Fitch belongs).
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