Avalanche Studios Co-Founders Open New Studio Elemental Games - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 15 March 2022 / 1,476 Views
Avalanche Studios co-founders Linus and Viktor Blomberg have announced the establishment of a new studio based in Stockholm, Sweden. The studio is called Elemental Games and was formed in August 2021.
Founding members also include former developed from DICE, Epic Games, and Ubisoft, alongside the Avalanche co-founders. The team has worked on Battlefield 1, Fortnite, and Unreal Engine, as well as films and TV series like Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, The Mandalorian, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
The founding members include Linus Blomberg, Viktor Blomberg, Oskar Blomberg, Kristofer “Loffan” Labedzki, Robert Krupa, Martin Kritan’ Bergquist, Christian Nilsendahl, Emil ‘Humus’ Persson, Andreas Tillema, and Tobias Ekholm.
The first game from the studio is an original IP that is already in development. The studio's mission statement is to create "high-quality open-world experiences from a creatively and financially independent position."
"We will continue to evolve systemic gameplay and the open-world genre, using all the knowledge we gained from Just Cause, Mad Max, Rage 2, and other Avalanche games," said Elemental Studios co-founder Linus Blomberg.
"Our years in the AAA games industry have been rewarding and given us much experience, but it has also been frustrating at times. Large companies are often constrained in their ability to break the mold, due to investors’ focus on short-term financial goals. In that environment it’s challenging to do explorative development and to be innovative, as well as to advance the medium in areas such as gender stereotypes and romanticization of violence.
"Our ambition is to bring together the best of both AAA and Indie development, by having a team with extensive blockbuster experience, but driven by their personal passion for the craft, and with complete creative and financial independence.
"We’ve seen in the past how technology, art and design are often in conflict rather than elevating each other. So we are creating an environment where none of these disciplines dictates to the others, where we use our experience and craftsmanship in a truly collaborative way so that opportunities open up that we wouldn’t even have considered in isolation.
"The team consists of developers who can push the boundaries in their fields, and we will take advantage of that to develop proprietary open-word technology. But we also don’t want to reinvent the wheel or spread ourselves too thin, so we work with external partners in areas that we don’t think we can add value to. More on this will be announced during GDC next week."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
Essay Pro