4A Games has been busy the last few years. With the release of Metro Exodus, the franchise embraced new firsts, like open-world missions, EGS exclusivity, and NVIDIA’s DLSS (which required a few patches for improvement). In August, it was announced that 4A would join other studios under Embracer Group’s multi-studio acquisition. Now, in celebration of Metro 2033‘s 10th Anniversary, it’s announced plans for the next entry in the popular franchise.
The Next Metro
It’s no secret that we have already started work on the next Metro game. Using everything we’ve learned from the last 15 years, we’ve set our sights even higher – the next title is being built for Gen 9 consoles and PC, with a complete overhaul of our engine and renderer to take advantage of the new power, storage, and hardware supported ray tracing afforded by the new consoles.
We’re not ready to share anything more, but we wanted to reassure our fans about a few important topics.
First – we’re committed to delivering a great story-driven single-player experience; this is what the Metro series is founded on. As a studio, we want to constantly push ourselves to create bigger and better games, but we also listen to what the fans are saying, and we know what’s important to you. We take our responsibility to the franchise seriously, and we think you’ll be excited about our plans for the next chapter.
Multiplayer
At the same time, our partnership with Saber will allow us to explore something that has always been an ambition for 4A Games, but something we have never been able to commit to until now: a multiplayer experience in the Metro universe.
As a small studio, we have never been able to do justice to these ambitions, and our ideas have never made it beyond the prototype phase. But with Saber’s experience in online gaming, we are now actively exploring multiplayer concepts that will offer a new way to experience the world of Metro.
We know some of our fans have concerns whenever they hear multiplayer mentioned, so we wanted to tackle this topic head-on and talk about some of the goals and principles behind this early exploration.
Let’s start by saying, we hear your concerns. We’re not looking at multiplayer as a box-ticking exercise, or to jump on some trend or bandwagon. As creators, we want to explore a multiplayer experience that makes complete sense in the Metro universe.
We’re also committed to ensuring that whatever we do, it’s not to the detriment of our single-player ambitions. We’ll need a dedicated team focused solely on the online component, and this is what our new partnership with Saber can bring; years of expertise, technology, and know-how to help us realize our ambitions.
Additionally, a reminder that it’s still early days – none of the thoughts above mean that the next Metro game will be multiplayer only; or that the next game will have single and multiplayer in the same package. We are still figuring things out, but know that we are absolutely committed to more single-player, story-driven experiences in the Metro universe that our fans have come to know and love.
The new Metro will focus on a single-player campaign, but the multiplayer could be an exciting addition. 4A Games is also sure to incorporate new technologies into the title. The world of Metro has expanded considerably over the last ten years, so there is plenty of material to source for growth.