Battalion 1944 developer Bulkhead is opening a second studio in Munich.
A new office brings new branding to the company. The Munich office will be named Bulkhead Darkhorse, while the original Derby studio is rebranded to Bulkhead Phoenix.
Both studios will begin hiring to fill out their ranks - CEO Joe Brammer explains that this is less about aggressive expansion, more to match the requirements needed to support their games.
“Our strategy is to be one of the biggest fish in an admittedly small pond," said Brammer, speaking to GamesIndustry.biz. "We don't want to compete with the Ubisofts or Epics over in Berlin - we want to build our own thing.”
Full speed ahead
The German office will initially focus on continuing to support ongoing development of Battalion 1944. Both offices will work on ramping up to the game’s full release in 2019, starting with a major update next week. After that, Darkhorse will start work on a new first-person shooter project.
Expansion seems to be stemming from the unexpected success of Battalion 1944. High demand left Bulkhead unprepared when it came to providing servers or adequate matchmaking support. But the successes have left Bulkhead able to expand to meet demand, and the new studio names come were inspired by some of the early stages of Early Access.
Brammer explained: "We released the game off the back of Lawbreakers, which had left a bad taste amongst FPS players, while PUBG also seemed to be losing players. There were always going to be some eager to brand Battalion 1944 a 'dead game' whatever happened post-launch," he continues.
"It's just the nature of things. [But] our game was merely 'sleeping', not dead. As a result, we named the Derby office 'Phoenix', as in rising from the ashes.”
"Darkhorse is another term for the underdog - so many people told us we would fail or the game was too big, as well as players not believing we could deliver. However, with this next big update, we're actually delivering on our classic 'back to roots' FPS game promise. In short, we're more than happy to be underdogs - so Bulkhead Darkhorse it is."
He concludes: "Growing Darkhorse to be its own studio capable of building its own title is our current goal. Realistically, we can see ourselves opening office spaces in other UK cities, but right now we're just focusing on hiring the people we need and improving Battalion 1944."
