In an effort to ramp up their video game presence, entertainment company Fox has announced today that it has acquired Cold Iron Studios, a Bay Area-based development studio that was set up by former Cryptic developers.
The reason for the move, according to the head of FoxNext Games, was due to the company wanting to make video games as significant to them as film and television are to Fox. Under FoxNext, Cold Iron Studios will begin working on an Alien shooter for PC and consoles. Not much is known about the project yet, but the studio did tell GamesIndustry.biz that the game will “explore areas of the universe that fans haven’t got to experience.”
According to FoxNext Games president Aaron Loeb, per GamesIndustry.biz, this is just the beginning for Fox in terms of video games. “FoxNext Games seeks to make games as important a part of Fox’s business as movies and television,” he said. “Games will be the defining entertainment medium of this century, in our view.”
Speaking on Cold Iron Studios, Loeb praised the development team, claiming that their expertise will add a new dimension to how Fox approaches games. “The kinds of games Cold Iron develops will enable us to deeply explore the worlds of our franchises, starting with the Alien universe.” While the addition of a studio like Cold Iron certainly adds some legitimacy to Fox wanting to do more than dabble in games, it will still be some time before we see if they’re really planning on sticking around. Still, they certainly have the properties and characters to center around video games, so only time will tell if they can make it all work.
[Source: GamesIndustry.biz]