Mario + Rabbids creator Davide Soliani believes players are looking for unique independent games that are “willing to tell different stories”.
Soliani left Ubisoft last year after 25 years at Ubisoft and has now joined with writer Christian Cantamessa (Red Dead Redemption, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, the forthcoming Perfect Dark reboot) to form a new studio, Day 4 Night.
Along with other former Ubisoft Milan employees, the pair are working on a new “passion project”, though admitted it’s a risky time in the games industry to be founding a new studio.
“I think stupidity made us,” Cantamessa told VGC, discussing the risk of a new studio. “This industry is really at a crossroads right now. We’ve reached the point where you have massive overheads, you need to recoup those massive investments, and it becomes really hard to sustain.”
He explained the studio’s financing, from publisher Krafton and Ed Fries’ 1Up Ventures, is purely based on stock, meaning the pair have complete creative freedom.
“On one end, you have a situation where everyone is a bit more careful at investing money,” said Soliani. “At the same time, there is a growing interest from the player towards games that are a bit, let’s say, out of the chorus. They are a bit different. They are willing to tell different stories…that’s what we are observing as developers and as players.”