The recently-announced T-Minus Zero Entertainment is working on a new MMO based on a 'public domain' sci-fi IP.
That's according to the studio, who told VGC that the plan was to take this property and "make it their own". When T-Minus Zero was announced earlier this month, the company simply said that it was working on "an original third-person multiplayer action game set in a sci-fi universe”.
“We’re building something that, even though we’re calling it a new game, it’s based on a public domain IP that is recognised globally," game director Mark Tucker said.
"It’s going to be a third-person IP. We’re going to make it our own and add our own personality to it. You’ll instantly recognise the inspiration behind it, but it will be its own unique thing.”
Studio founder Rich Vogel (pictured) added: “I started a studio once that was totally equity-based, and it was all about chasing the money. You have a burn rate, you have a certain amount of runway… you’re constantly battling things that aren’t the game itself. To me, that’s suboptimal to making a great game, because you have a lot of people focused on things other than the game.
“So we decided to go first-party and we had a couple of choices. We loved NetEase and the way that they responded to us. I’ve known them for quite some time and I like their core values. Their executive group are production people: they’ve worked on games before, and that’s impressive. They basically said, ‘make a great game, and we’ll take care of everything else’.”
