Metro developer 4A Games is not leaving the Embracer Group for Saber Interactive after all. When Saber announced its split with Embracer six months ago, it also secured the rights to acquire the Ukrainian studio. However, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier confirmed today that the move won’t actually happen.
Saber CEO Matt Karch told me in a statement this morning that “it was always our intention to exercise on 4A” but “we thought it would be better for all parties” for the studio to instead remain with Embracer.
The news didn’t exactly sit well with fans, especially after Embracer closed down several studios and laid off many employees throughout the whole group. Perhaps they’ll feel better when 4A Games finally unveils its next project. The publisher confirmed a new Metro installment as early as August 2019, but we still haven’t learned anything concrete other than a generic ‘202X’ release window.
This year, series fans are getting a Virtual Reality game called Metro Awakening, but it’s being developed by Vertigo Games (the maker of Arizona Sunshine) instead. According to the little info we have, it will be a prequel with a supernatural vibe:
The year is 2028. The survivors of nuclear Armageddon cling to existence in the buried subways of the Moscow Metro – civilization’s last refuge and tomb, where ghosts and spirits haunt the living in this man-made purgatory.
You are Serdar, a doctor braving the darkness, crippling radiation and deadly threats of the Metro in the search for your wife and the medication she so desperately needs. As your courage and sanity are pushed to the limit, you must learn to walk the line between life and death, the spirit and the material world, and awaken the being you will become…
The unveiling of the next mainline Metro title (which the studio said will be influenced by their experience with the Russian war) could happen as soon as the upcoming The Game Awards event. It would be about time, certainly.
