If New Blood had made Dusk 2, there would be no iron lung. 'And now David Shimanski has a film that grossed $50 million,' so perhaps it's wise not to make sequels.

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Blood's new boss, Dave Oshry, isn't interested in running a massive studio that follows the blockbuster strategy of milking its hit games for all they're worth. The publisher-developer combo has had a string of big wins with its blockbuster shooters, but Oshry's plan to build on that success is to invest that money into new projects.

"I think a lot of studios have a big hit like Ultrakill, and then maybe open a big box office, or just milk Ultrakill and do Ultrakill spinoffs, or use that money to make sequels," Oshery tells us. And I've decided to put that money into projects like Gloomwood and Fallen Acess's like Tee art. I decided to work with my success because I can, because we are independent."

Oshery says the goal was never to create "a big studio with an office and hundreds of employees...I don't know why anyone would want that." And luckily, he doesn't have to deal with shareholders and investors telling him to just keep milking and keep growing.

"The fact that we're a studio and I control everything means I can make those decisions," he says. "If a publisher or a shareholder had investors, they'd say, 'No, you've got to take that money and reinvest it in things that are going to make more money so we can get more returns.' "You should be working on the Ultrakill spin-off games," they say. You should be working on Dusk 2, Faith: Chapter Four. Why haven't you made a survival crafting game out of this yet? You have to reinvest in IPs and make money, money, money. And we say exactly: "What interesting thing do we want to do?" What's coming down the pipe?"

That's not to say New Blood doesn't support its games or give players another taste of what they dig. Dusk and Amid Evil continue to be updated and there is talk of a new Dusk episode or even a proper sequel. A Dusk spinoff is also in the works, called Dungeons of Dusk, though it's from a different developer, not David Szymanski.

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But this is still a far cry from the big publisher strategy of making IPs and drying them up. For example, like Ubisoft. “Look at the goddamn heroes of might and magic,” says Oshrey. "Look at what's happened to that bloody series over the years. Everyone loves Heroes 3, and that was a million years ago. Ubisoft has been whoring this IP all over the place for decades, and now you finally get someone like Hooded Horse making something like the old days, and people say, 'Yeah, well, that's what we wanted.' But it's all about the IP, always with AAA." has been."

Oshry offers Wolverine as another example. "It was designed by a company, and look what happened. I don't think it was the game they originally intended to make, but it was the game they had to make. At New Blood we never make games because it's the game we had to make — because we had to meet a deadline or have investors or shareholders. We literally just try to make the best games we can. and make people happy as much as we can."

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If New Blood followed the received wisdom that Sony or Ubisoft follow, it probably wouldn't be the success it is. "If I had forced David to make Dusk 2, we would never have gotten to Iron Lung," Oshry says. Iron Lung, Markiplier, $50 million [box office] Never happens if I make David do Dusk 2. And now David Szymanski has a $50 million movie funded by a YouTuber. It wouldn't happen if I didn't run New Blood the way I do. it works It works for us."

Looking at the state of the industry, the failure of big games like Wolverine, the so-called "Xbox reset," terrible layoffs, it sure seems like making blockbuster games, endless sequels, and IP obsession is unsustainable.

"As we've seen with all the layoffs, developers are disposable, whether you make a successful game or not," says Oshry. "What is a hit? Your game can sell millions of copies, but it doesn't balance the balance sheet. So everyone becomes unemployed. Imagine working on a game for six years, it's not the game you wanted to make anyway, and then you get fired because it's not the game that sells. And you say, "Well, maybe if it was a game we wanted to make, and not a game that had to be released like Wolverine."

People are always like, "Oh, the industry is dying and collapsing". We are doing well. I guess we are the lucky ones. But I think we've taken our chances by making the kind of games we want to make, and we know they're going to sell to people who like our games."

Fraser is the UK's online editor and has actually met the internet firsthand. With more than a decade of experience, he's been in the field several times, serving as a prolific freelancer, news editor, and reviewer. Strategy games have been a 30-year obsession, from small RTSs to sprawling political sims, and he never turns down a chance to rave about Total War or Crusader Kings. He is also known for launching the latest MMO games and likes to end with a deep and systemic endless RPG. These days, when she's not editing, she can usually be found writing 1,000-plus-word features or talking about her dog.

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