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The Chinese Room has decided that it will release its next title without the assistance of a publisher.
The developer of Dear Esther and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs teamed up with Sony to release Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture exclusively on PS4 last year.
However, speaking about the upcoming reveal of its next title, the studio said that releasing independently would be ‘open’ with development.
It also suggested that going solo on the project would provide the chance to support the game with a wider range of merchandise, such as special edition releases and even a tie-in novel.
Last year, Chinese Room co-director and composer Jessica Curry hinted at the stress working with Sony had caused her personally and criticised the demands of the publisher in a letter announcing her departure from the company.
Clarifying that she was writing from her own perspective, rather than that of the studio, Curry said: “Working with a publisher made me extremely unhappy and very ill. So much of the stress that I experienced was caused by what I see as the desperately toxic relationship that I was in.
“I look back at the way we were treated and it still makes me shake my head with disbelief. Big business and the creation of art have always been extremely uncomfortable bedfellows and making Rapture proved to be no exception for me.
“I’ve heard so many people say, “well, this is just the way publishers are” and “this is just what the games industry is like.” What I would say to that is while we all keep accepting this, while we are so afraid to challenge this behaviour then it won’t change and we all deserve nothing but the meagre crumbs we are thrown.”
We're gearing up towards releasing info about our new game in the next couple of weeks.
— The Chinese Room (@ChineseRoom) February 15, 2016
With the bonus that because it's not signed to a publisher, we can be pretty open about development. Which raises the question…
— The Chinese Room (@ChineseRoom) February 15, 2016
What's the kind of stuff you want to know about how we make our games? Then we'll do our best to make that as open as we can…
— The Chinese Room (@ChineseRoom) February 15, 2016
The other cool thing is that we own the IP – so if you want t-shirts, special editions, vinyl, graphic novel, actual novel etc – let us know
— The Chinese Room (@ChineseRoom) February 15, 2016
