Open-world preternatural RPG Wyrdsong announced by new independent game studio Something Wicked Games

During Gamescom 2022 Opening Night Live, "AAA open world preternatural RPG" Wyrdsong was announced along with the unveil of a brand-new independent game studio, Something Wicked Games. At the start of Wyrdsong's announcement trailer, it highlights that industry veterans who have worked on western RPG juggernauts, such as Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Fallout 4, and The Outer Worlds, are part of this new game studio.

Something Wicked Games is led by James Gardiner, who served as Lead Producer for the Knights of the Nine and Shiving Isles expansions frrom The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and was also a Senior Producer on Skyrim in his time with Bethesda. Charles Staples is the co-founder of the new independent game studio, who previously worked on Alpha Protocol as a Designer, South Park: The Stick of Truth as a Level Design Lead, and The Outer Worlds as a Design Director.

Details are sparse at the moment on exactly what kind of game Wyrdsong will be besides being an open-world RPG. The brief announcement trailer teases that there are two lies that exist in the "crux of reality". In the artwork for Wyrdsong's teaser, what seems to be the time-of-day shifts in the blink of an eye literally.

No target platforms or release dates having been revealed yet for Wyrdsong, since it seems to be still early in development. In the meantime, the official website for Something Wicked Games is now live and the announcement trailer for Wyrdsong can be found below.

Something Wicked Games, a brand-new studio from 15-year Bethesda Game Studios veteran Jeff Gardiner was just revealed at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live. With initial seed funding of $13.2mm from NetEase, Something Wicked Games is a new, globally dispersed AAA games studio with creative and leadership talent from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout: New Vegas, Fallout 4, The Outer Worlds and more. Their first game, an open world AAA preternatural RPG, Wyrdsong, is currently in development. 

Today’s announcement is coupled by an animatic teaser trailer for the studio’s first game, Wyrdsong. Wyrdsong is an occult historical fantasy RPG set in a fictionalized Portugal in the middle ages. Players will be challenged to question both their reality and the choices they make as Wyrdsong is set to expand, question, and re-define aspects of what makes up the current Role Playing Game genre. 

Gardiner’s career in games boasts some of the most well known franchises in the RPG space. Gardiner served as lead producer and project lead across several of Bethesda’s flagship titles in the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls franchises. Before making the difficult choice to leave Bethesda Game Studios following a 15-year career, Gardiner’s efforts on Fallout 76 saw its transformation into one of the most successful, robust examples of the games-as-a-service model.

The studio’s talent roster also includes Co-Founder & Design Director Charles Staples (Obsidian Entertainment). Staples’ 15-year tenure at Obsidian was highlighted with his Design Director role on The Outer Worlds, as well as his work as Lead Level Designer on Fallout: New Vegas. 

“Our goal with Something Wicked Games is to utilize our independence and creative autonomy to create the next evolution of open world RPGs,” said Something Wicked Games CEO and Founder Jeff Gardiner. “Our first project, Wyrdsong, has been my dream game for some time now, and I’m thrilled to finally share it today.” 

Developed on Unreal Engine 5, Wyrdsong immerses fans in a dark historical fantasy where every decision has a consequence, both in this world and others yet to be discovered.