Liquid Swords Announces Investment From NetEase Games

Liquid Swords Announces Investment From NetEase Games

Swedish start-up takes a significant step in its mission to shake up video-game development. 

November 2, 2022, Stockholm-based indie game developer Liquid Swords AB today announced an exciting investment from NetEase Games, one of China’s leading online games service providers.

Liquid Swords, founded by game-development luminary Christofer Sundberg, will continue to operate independently. The investment enables Sundberg to realize his vision of simplifying the development process to create exceptional, narrative-driven, experiences for players.

This investment further highlights NetEase Games’ philosophy of supporting innovation and game development around the globe.

As founder and CCO, Sundberg, explains, “NetEase Games has been exceptionally supportive from the very get-go, believing in our high ambitions and quality-focused approach to game development. We are very pleased to have them as our partners on this adventure and with their support, we can begin to realize the vision for our studio.”

Equally as excited about the partnership is Simon Zhu, president of global partnerships and investments, NetEase Games, "NetEase Games has a proud tradition of unleashing the potential of creators and providing the support they need to build amazing experiences. We believe in the creativity of Liquid Swords and share their passion for building open-world games and experiences. They have built a strong, experienced team and we are very excited to partner with them as they begin their journey of creating something amazing for gamers worldwide." 

Speaking about why he founded the studio, Sundberg explains, “In December 2020, I set out on a journey to make a difference in the world of game development– which has been my professional and entertainment world since the early 90s. I want to make a difference to how games are made, how the teams work, and how the creative process evolves. Liquid Swords is the realization of an ambition to refocus the game-development process.” 

As the founder and former CCO of Avalanche Studios, Sundberg led the creation of the critically acclaimed, ground-breaking, blockbuster ‘Just Cause’ series.  Liquid Swords is the next chapter in his illustrious gaming career, with the studio currently working on its first title: a AAA+, single-player, narrative-driven, open-world, action RPG.

Liquid Swords is preparing to take huge strides in 2023 by ramping up the next phase of game development, reaching its growth ambition of a 100-strong team, and moving into a newly refurbished office designed to accommodate its dedicated and creative minds.

For Liquid Swords, this announcement is not only a momentous step toward Sundberg’s original vision of a quality-focused super studio but perhaps a small step toward a video-game industry without half-baked games and broken promises.

About Liquid Swords: Founded in 2020, Liquid Swords AB is a video-game developer, based in Sweden, focusing on narrative-driven open-world games. The studio was founded by Christofer Sundberg, founder and former CCO of Avalanche Studios and original creator of the acclaimed Just Cause franchise. Liquid Swords' goal is to deliver unforgettable experiences by reaching the highest quality possible and tell stories in new, innovative ways.

Liquid Swords’ development team is a mix of experts, who have contributed to franchises including Just Cause, Battlefield, GTA, and PayDay. The studio is backed by Christofer Sundberg, NetEase Games, and private investors.

For more information, connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Liquid Swords is a registered trademark of Liquid Swords AB. All other trademarks are registered trademarks by their respective owners.

www.liquidswords.com

Interior Night Drafts In Trio of Senior Staff

Narrative games studio begins next chapter with key hires of Steve Kniebihly, Ronald De Feijter and Charu Desodt.

13th December 2017. London, UK.

Interior Night, the recently formed studio dedicated to creating innovative and accessible narrative games, today announces the addition of 3 new senior staff:

• Steve Kniebihly joins as Cinematic Director, with a track record that spans high profile titles like ‘Heavy Rain’, ‘Beyond - Two Souls’, ‘The Witcher 3 – Blood and Wine’ and most recently ‘Planet of the Apes – New Frontier’.
• Ronald De Feijter joins as Technical Director, from Sony where he led gameplay on ‘Eye Pet’, ‘Wonderbook; Book of Spells’ and PlayStation ‘VR Worlds’.
• Charu Desodt joins as Production Director. An experienced producer of social and AR games including Sony’s ‘SingStar’ and ‘Wonderbook: Book of Spells’, Charu was also a 2014 Breakthrough Brit winner.

Founder and Creative Director Caroline Marchal said, “I’m delighted to have Steve, Ronald and Charu join the team. In addition to being super nice and amazing to work with, they are experts in narrative and social games. They are the right people to help Interior Night fulfil its ambition.”

Interior Night is developing narrative games aimed at a mature TV audience – people who love shows like Breaking Bad or Fargo but who are not necessarily gamers. The studio aims to craft broad experiences where people forget about the mechanics to focus on the characters and the story for maximum emotional impact. 

For more information visit:

W: http://www.interiornight.com/

T: @Int_Night

Media Enquiries

Alison Beasley, Lincoln Beasley PR. M: +44 (0) 7966 449130 E: alison@lincolnbeasley.co.uk

David Braben & Elite: Dangerous Pick up Awards at GDC 2015

The 15th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA), the peer-awarded highest honors in video game development, has revealed its first two Special Award winners for this year - honoring Veteran Brenda Romero With Ambassador Award, Elite Co-Creator David Braben With Pioneer Award

The Ambassador Award, honoring someone who is helping video games "advance to a better place" through advocacy or action, is going to game designer and academic Brenda Romero, who has been a key figure in video games throughout more than 3 decades of standout game design, teaching, and advocacy. The Pioneer Award, honoring breakthrough tech and game design milestones, is being awarded to David Braben, the co-creator of seminal 3D space exploration title Elite - now in resurgence with Elite: Dangerous - and co-founder of the Foundation for the popular 'hobbyist computer revival' Raspberry Pi device.

Pioneer Award winner David Braben co-developed the seminal 'open world' 3D space trading game Elite with Ian Bell while at university in the early 1980s. The best-selling, startlingly expansive title had revolutionary 3D graphics and let the player make all kinds of intriguing moral decisions as they flew the known universe. Elite saw a number of sequels, including the crowdfunded, currently much buzzed-about Elite: Dangerous, and went on to be a big influence on games in the genre it helped create - from Wing Commander to No Man's Sky and beyond.

In addition to his work on Elite and his more than 30 years as a game developer - latterly at his major UK studio Frontier Developments - Braben was also involved in the genesis of the Raspberry Pi, a 'hobbyist computer' which enables people of all ages to explore computing, and to program in languages like Scratch and Python. Braben helped to found the Raspberry Pi Foundation and guide the program through to mass production - with more than 4 million of the devices now manufactured.

Elite: Dangerous also picked up the Audience Award for Best Game.