Polish game development studio CI Games has announced that it now has a live service tactical shooter in active development, continuing the lineage of itsSniper: Ghost Warriorfranchise and itsContractsoffshoot. Its most notable recent release wasSniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts 2, which applied aHitman-esque gameplay loop to the studio’s established sniper-focused FPS property.
WhileSniper: Ghost Warriorgames have always been firmly in the category of smaller-scale AA releases, the fact that they’re almost unopposed in this niche means that they’re fairly noteworthy on their own. Now, however, it would seem that CI Games may be ready to leave the franchise behind to focus on something entirely new and potentially rather innovative to boot.
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Namely, CI Games' latest investor roadmap plainly states that the studio’s previously dedicatedSniper: Ghost Warriorteam has moved on to producing a mysterious new live service game with the working title ofProject Scorpiothat’s slated for a 2024/2025 release. Fans ofSniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts 2’s advanced gameplay mechanicsaren’t being left out to dry, however, as CI Games appears to be working with an outside partner to keep theSniper: Ghost Warriorseries up and running.
CI Games explained that there are plans to supportProject Scorpiowith events, microtransactions, and potentially even an esports angle, suggesting a competitive experience of some sort. Sincelive service games tend to glow upafter their release in many cases, CI Games could very well be trying to leverage its long-lasting expertise in an unprecedented way for the studio. According to the roadmap, CI Games is now also working on an Unreal Engine 5 survival game,Project Survive, which appears to be a collaboration with Batfields, the team that produced theDead Effectgames.
Of course, it’s also worth remembering thatCI Games’Lords of the Fallenrebootgot revealed earlier this year and that it’s currently targeting a 2023 launch. This means that the studio now has at least three major new titles in active development, which is no mean feat. Since neitherProject ScorpionorProject Survivehave yet been assigned their official titles, however,Lords of the Fallenis almost certainly further along its development pipeline.
The future of theSniper: Ghost Warriorfranchise and itsContractsoffshoot now depends entirely on the partner studio that takes it over, at least for now. Thankfully, the games' focus on a specific FPS niche means that any potential sequel is practically bound to follow the formula that fans know and love. More importantly, it might lead to crucialgameplay-level fixes thatContracts 2never received.
Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
