Dotemu is on a fairly good run. The online game studio and writer has been round since 2007, and far of its historical past is essentially engaged on remakes and remasters of older video games. Nevertheless it’s additionally been concerned with main hits within the type of sequels and new video games which might be within the spirit of older classics, together with Streets of Rage 4 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge.
All of that work is culminating in what appears to be like to be a promising 2025, with three new however classics-inspired video games: Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, a brand new side-scroller for the sequence; Marvel Cosmic Invasion, an arcade-y beat-’em-up; and Absolum, an authentic beat-’em-up with roguelike parts.
“We’re open to all the pieces,” CEO Cyrille Imbert tells The Verge. Regardless of his title, Imbert says his job includes appearing like an government producer to carry collectively ideas that reply particular wants for franchises.
Earlier than Shredder’s Revenge’s 2022 launch, for instance, there hadn’t been a superb side-scrolling TMNT sport for “some time,” he says. (Turtles in Time, which helped encourage the sport, got here out in 1991.) “We have been satisfied that there was a necessity for that.” There was: the sport bought 1 million copies in its first week, developer Tribute Video games stated on the time.
Dotemu takes on “many of the threat” of a venture based mostly on an present franchise, Imbert says, that means that whereas the corporate must persuade a franchise proprietor to get on board, Dotemu sometimes funds all the pieces and is chargeable for discovering a studio to execute an idea.
“From A to Z, we’re answerable for the venture, however we take the danger from A to Z as properly,” explains Imbert. “Generally the studio may even take part financially, but it surely’s pretty uncommon, or it’s often a minority of the overall spending.”
With the brand new Ninja Gaiden sport, for instance, Imbert says he was aware of the 3D iterations of the franchise on Xbox, and he additionally noticed the success of current action-platformers like The Messenger. So, he began conversations with Koei Tecmo, after which labored with The Sport Kitchen, the developer of Blasphemous, on a pitch. “That’s the story, mainly,” Imbert says.
For Marvel Cosmic Invasion, Imbert says that following Streets of Rage 4, “numerous folks” had been asking for a brand new X-Males sport that was like what you used to seek out in arcades. “We knew there was a necessity and that folks would love it,” he says, particularly if it obtained an identical therapy as Streets of Rage 4 or Shredder’s Revenge. The thought was “very apparent” to the Tribute Video games staff as properly, so Dotemu and Tribute made a pitch to Marvel Video games.
Absolum, as a totally authentic sport, is completely different from its different titles. From a pure enterprise perspective, it’s a method for Dotemu to diversify its lineup in order that the corporate doesn’t rely solely on licensed video games. Internally, the Dotemu staff felt like they may do their very own factor, and by making it impressed by classics, it could nonetheless slot in Dotemu’s lineup, Imbert says. In addition they wished to work with Guard Crush, which labored on Streets of Rage 4, on one other beat-’em-up.
All of it provides as much as what’s going to be a busy yr for the corporate. It has three video games that present the completely different approaches it has to creating these sorts of experiences, and all of them have been chosen for a particular cause. “That’s how we’re going to be happy with what we do.”
