NCsoft is shoring up its portfolio with a decision to invest in Swedish studio Moon Rover Games. The $3.5 million seed round investment will help fund development of a new co-op shooter, currently codenamed Project Aldous.
In a press release announcing the investment, NCSoft is looking to “fund an ambitious new FPS project and secure a long-term partnership, including discussions on publishing rights and future collaborations”. Project Aldous is currently being developed with a plan to release on PC and console.
The studio was founded by a group of former EA DICE Battlefield devs, back in 2022 and is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. With extensive development experience making FPS games, the team members also have experience on franchises like Far Cry and Tom Clancy's The Division. Project Aldous Is based on an original IP and the team emphasizes on its website that their aim is for emergent gameplay stories and an element of player agency.
This seed investment round has NCsoft as the sole investor, And this initial funding is part of what the company is looking at as a longer term involvement. If things go well in production and things progress in a positive direction, the company does state that the two companies will continue discussing various methods of cooperation, “including additional Investments and publishing rights”.
In August, NCsoft says that they will announce a number of new initiatives, including more investments. One of those is for a Korean game studio, alongside “joint business plans with a global partner (let the speculation begin!), and they plan to announce business plans for their proprietary shop/streaming/social platform, Purple.
