Sony has announced the founding of teamLFG, a new studio within PlayStation Studios that’s formed around an incubation project and team that was formerly a part of Bungie.
While the team is formed around that core of ex-Bungie developers, PlayStation Studios boss Hermen Hulst explains that it “has also rallied developers from across the industry”.
Furthermore, teamLFG explains a little of what their game will be. Their first title will take inspiration from “fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and frog-type games. Players will inhabit a lighthearted, comedic world set in brand-new, mythic, science-fantasy universe.”
Here’s teamLFG’s announcement letter:
“Hello, world. It’s a delight to meet you, and we’re very grateful to be joining PlayStation Studios.
Our studio is headquartered in Bellevue, WA, with team members working both on-site and remotely throughout the U.S. and Canada. We are a team composed not just of industry veterans who have shipped titles like Destiny, Halo, League of Legends, Fortnite, Roblox, and Rec Room, but also industry newcomers with fresh creative perspectives and skills. We are passionate about exceptional action-based gameplay, moment-to-moment game feel, and richly social virtual worlds.
The “LFG” in “teamLFG” stands for “Looking For Group.” We are driven by a mission to create games where players can find friendship, community, and belonging. We want our players to feel excited when they log on to discover their teammates already hanging out online. We want our players to recognize familiar names and to make myths and memes out of each other. We want our players to love remembering that one time where they pulled off That Play that changed the whole story of the match. As we say on the team – dat’s da good stuff.
We will make immersive multiplayer worlds propelled by action games that players can learn, play, and master for countless hours. We want to build our games with our communities, inviting players to be a part of our development process through early access playtests. It’s critical that we stay nimble enough to react to player feedback, not just in our lead-up to launch, but throughout live service as we continue to grow the game and community for years to come.
Our first game is a team-based action game that draws inspiration from fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and frog-type games. Players will inhabit a lighthearted, comedic world set in brand-new, mythic, science-fantasy universe. We can’t wait to reveal more.
‘Til then, we’ll do our best! Thanks for reading.”
– teamLFG
This new studio branched off from Bungie last August, amidst turmoil at the Destiny 2 developer. With Destiny 2 underperforming and a good long time still to go before the release of Marathon – now set for release in a few months from now – Bungie CEO Pete Parsons enacted a round of layoffs that cut hundreds of jobs and moved even more across to the rest of PlayStation Studios. One Destiny 2 spin-off, codenamed Payback, was cancelled at that time, while a team of around 40 were to form a new studio and continue working on an “incubation project”. That team has now become teamLFG.
Source: PlayStation Blog
