Zen Studios has announced that their upcoming Dungeon Crawler RPG, Operencia: The Stolen Sun, will be exclusive to the Xbox One when it releases on consoles. Operancia: The Stolen Sun will represent a big change in direction for Zen Studios who are best known for their work on Pinball games, in particular the Pinball FX series. This time there will be no pinball tables in sight, as Zen Studios undertake their first foray into the RPG genre.
The news was announced by Chris Baker, Creative Director at Zen Studios, in a blog post on the Xbox website. In announcing the news, Baker said:
“Much of Pinball FX’s success stems from modernizing a classic gaming concept that we just don’t see much of any more, adapting it to appeal to gamers of today – and Operencia does that exact same thing. Except this time, rather than making you look at flippers and bumpers in a whole new way, we’re updating the classic first-person party-based dungeon-crawling RPG to a very 2019 gaming experience.
“Blobbers” like Operencia are perhaps most commonly thought of as PC releases, but we’ve recognized the importance of making this very specific style of RPG equally rewarding to console players – very specifically, Xbox One players – from the very start. That’s right…Xbox One is the only console where you’ll be able to play Operencia once the game releases this Spring. Better yet, it’s enhanced for Xbox One X – and yes, those of you with Xbox Game Pass can check it out in its entirety from day one.”
This is much needed by Microsoft, who have really struggled to nail down some great exclusive titles during this generation of consoles, with Sony’s exclusives rising head and shoulders above their Xbox counterparts. Hopefully Operencia is good enough to make an impact for Microsoft, but it remains to be seen how Zen Studios will do on their first effort at a new genre.
Operancia: The Stolen Sun will take place in the fantastical far-away land of Operencia, which is referred to in numerous folktales that are told in Central Europe, and Zen Studios promise to take the concept of these stories and “incorporate legendary versions of historical locations and figures” to deliver a unique, compelling story. Operencia: The Stolen Sun will be a first-person, tile-based dungeon crawler RPG that features turn-based combat, and players will be able to ramp up the difficulty by turning automapping off or activating permadeath.
Aside from the games exclusive console release on Xbox One—and, of course, the Xbox Game Pass—it will also be releasing on PC, exclusively through the Epic Games Store. This is another scalp for the Epic Games Store as they continue to try and get one-over on Steam, which the game was announced to be releasing on when it was first announced. Operencia will join the likes of Metro Exodus and The Division 2 in the bracket of games that are exclusive to Epics store on PC, following the recent announcements that both of those games will also snub Steam. That news was also broke in a blog post, this time on Zen Studio’s own website:
“We are very proud to share this HUGE piece of news with all of you: Operencia: The Stolen Sun will release exclusively through the Xbox One family of devices, including Xbox One X and Xbox Game Pass and the Epic Games store for PC.”
Operencia: The Stolen Sun is scheduled to release on PC and Xbox One in Spring 2019.
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