There’s a modern migration of game developers leaving large studios and publishers to form independent teams, often pulling in large investments in the process. The latest example of which isThat’sNo Moon Entertainment, a quickly growing team said to be composed of ex-Call of Duty,The Last of Us, and PlayStation veterans. That’s No Moon, named after the famousStar Warsquote, is already working on a new AAA action-adventure game with the backing ofSouth Korean publisher Smilegate, which has invested more than $100 million into the young studio.
That’s No Moon is going to be headed by two key ex-employees from Infinity Ward and Naughty Dog. In the Creative Director role will be Taylor Kurosaki, who was previously Infinity Ward’s studio narrative director and Naughty Dog’s narrative design lead. The new project’s Game Director will beJacob Minkoff, formerly Infinity Ward’s design director forCall of Duty: Modern Warfareand lead game designer forThe Last of Us. Other members of the development team share experience from projects includingGod of War,Fortnite,The Last of Us Part 2,Destiny, andUncharted 4: A Thief’s End.
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As noted, That’s No Moon has already received a generous initial funding package of over $100 million from Smilegate. Smilegate has traditionally kept to South Korean game publishing, but has more recently moved toward support of western game development, publishing, and investment. For example, Smilegate is localizing its popular ARPG-MMOLost Arkfor release later this year. It’s also partnered with Remedy Entertainment and Xbox Game Studios forFPSCrossfireX, the latest iteration of Smilegate’s popular FPS franchise.
Little beyond what’s already been mention has been said about That’s No Moon’s first project. It’s a single-playe, third-person, action-adventure game that will be prioritizing both gameplay and story. Outside of beingnarrative-driven, all the team is ready to say about the project is that the studio was formed to craft “genre-defining” experiences. Suffice to say, it has high expectations for itself and wants fans to share those expectations.
Given the experience of That’s No Moon’s creative leads and the genre of the game, it’s perhaps a reasonable assumption to make that the project will be inspired byNaughty Dog’s past work. That it aspires to a genre-defining work with its first project is certainly ambitious. Fans of Naughty Dog’s games certainly wouldn’t say no to more projects of similar quality.
Big questions obviously remain, however. Smilegate is perhaps best known forfree-to-play projectswith heavy monetization. That doesn’t exactly go hand-in-hand with what That’s No Moon is describing, however. Needless to say, there are a lot of potential paths for That’s No Moon to take forward. It’ll be exciting to see what kind of studioThat’s No Moonchooses to be.
