Plague Tale developer Asobo have "a major new project" with Focus Entertainment
Focus also partnering with the Dreamscaper devs on something
Asobo Studio - the Bordeaux-based developer behind the extremely different Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and A Plague Tale: Innocence - are working on something "new" and "major" with Plague Tale publisher Focus Entertainment, according to a release portfolio update sent to investors this week.
There's little more to tell, but the update does specifically say that the project "will see them extend the productive collaboration that led to the A Plague Tale franchise, the last release of which, A Plague Tale Requiem, reached three million players worldwide". So the odds of this being A Plague Tale 3 - A Plague Tale: Revengeance? A Plague Tale: 40,000? - seem pretty high.
It follows the posting of LinkedIn job listings in July for several positions on Asobo's "Plague Team", which I'm assuming refers to the Plague Tale franchise rather than some undeclared bioweapons division. Although given Asobo's range - again, this is also the company behind Microsoft Flight Simulator - I wouldn't be surprised if it were the latter.
If you're new to the Plague Tale series, the first one was a narrative-led stealth-puzzle affair set in medieval France, in which you played two noble children fleeing through countryside overrun by carnivorous rat swarms and smelly Englishmen - the secret to success often being to pit one against the other. Alice B really liked its portrayal of a younger-older sibling relationship and had a good time with its stealth-puzzling, but wasn't so keen on certain boss battles.
I didn't play the grander, grislier follow-up, A Plague Tale: Requiem, which Rachel (RPS in peace) deemed a disappointment in some regards. "A bigger, bleaker sequel with hauntingly good art direction, but storytelling holds this biting medieval adventure back," was her verdict. If there's another Plague Tale game on the way, I hope they rethink the fundamentals a little.
Elsewhere in the investor update, Focus also revealed a new partnership with San Francisco-based Afterburner Studios "for the creation of a new intellectual co-ownership". I don't quite understand what an "intellectual co-ownership" is, but I did enjoy Afterburner's previous Dreamscaper, described by Ed Thorn as Hades meets Life is Strange, so fingers crossed it's more in that vein.