For some developers in the video game world, familiarity is very important. It’s good at times to work with someone you’ve worked well with in the past as it’ll be easier to get things done. However, sometimes that’s just not an option, and so you must look beyond who you’ve gone to before in order to see what’s out there. For From Software, they’ve only worked with Bandai Namco before with their Dark Souls franchise, and Bloodborne was published by Sony. But with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, they went to Activision instead, a big change.
So the question here is, “Why The Change?” Was there something wrong with going back to the other two? Or was this a situational thing? Well, the team happily revealed the answers in an interview:
“So initially when we had this project proposal we took it to a number of companies,” FromSoftware community manager Yasuhiro Kitao told GamesIndustry.biz. “We don’t have the clout to publish outside of Asia and Japan, and so Activision was one of the companies we approached and one of the companies who said they would like to talk.”
So when they went to Activision, they apparently loved Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and was totally up for helping them publish it. Which, was actually a bigger blessing in disguise than they knew. Because as they started to work with Activision, the game started to change for the better from its original vision:
“As we developed and as we partnered with Activision, and started building it together, it started becoming its own thing and the game we wanted to make was no longer just Tenchu, so it really evolved into its own thing,” Kitao said.
So this is a case where a branching out led to a whole new experience, one that many are excited for. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is set to arrive on March 22nd.
