We now have some new insight on what the mysterious new Activision studio, Elsewhere Entertainment, has been up to.
We reported on Activision opening a new studio in Poland called Elsewhere Entertainment in May of last year. This team collected staff from Bungie, Ubisoft, Naughty Dog, and of course, CD Projekt RED.
At the time, they claimed that the new studio would be making “a new narrative-based and genre-defining AAA franchise”.
Subsequently, we learned that one of CD Projekt RED’s former gameplay designers, Andrzej Kwiatkowski, revealed that he was in the studio. Subsequently, his LinkedIn account asserted that he had been working for Activision since 2022.
That takes us to today. As shared by Alan Feely on Twitter, another Elsewhere employee has shared more information on the game. Łukasz Nizik lists himself as a Senior Expert Network Programmer for the company on his LinkedIn. Nizik reveals that he has been working for Activision since January 2024, on a “New IP, new engine, open-world, narrative, multiplayer”
Everything revealed here is quite succinct, but it’s also quite revealing. It’s easy to see that CD Projekt RED veterans would be able to make an open world narrative game, but the multiplayer aspect certainly opens things up further.
We will point out that using open world as a descriptor does not quite give us a full picture. You can describe a game like Destiny 2 as open world for the purposes of recruiting developers, or describing your work as a game developer. Destiny 2 isn’t a true open world, as many gamers will be eager to tell you, but for the purposes of connecting in the game industry, it’s a suitable description.
While we don’t know the full scope of the game yet, it’s noteworthy that they chose to make their own engine. That comes with its own risks, of course, but if Elsewhere isn’t just using Unreal, that’s because they’re making the kind of game that Unreal isn’t suited to.
We have reported on Warhorse Studios, developers of the recent success Kingdom Come Deliverance II, and Pearl Abyss, developers of the upcoming Crimson Desert, talk about how Unreal is lacking for making open world games. And so, while Activision and Elsewhere have yet to announce the details, their game apparently endeavors for more ambition that what Unreal Engine can deliver.
In any case, given this game’s timetable, we don’t think it will be arriving until the next generation of consoles. That period between 2022 to 2024 may not even be a full development period, so we may wait sometime between 2027 to 2030 before it even comes out. Hopefully, Elsewhere’s new owners in Microsoft can keep everything together so this game makes it all the way to release.
