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Old World's Epic Games Store exclusive a good thing: Hooded Horse CEO

Aloysius Low
·Contributing Editor
·2-min read
(Image: Mowhawk Games)
(Image: Mowhawk Games)

If you very much loved the old school Civilisation feel of 4X game Old World, then you should be thankful it's currently an Epic Games Store exclusive.

"The original deal with Epic was definitely pro-consumer," said Timothy Bender, CEO of Hooded Horse, the new publisher for Old World, at the Gamescom Asia 2021 Virtual Media Day. His company had picked up Old World as its new publisher only last month.

Bender explained that Old World's initial publisher, Starbreeze, had encountered financial difficulties, and were no longer able to support the game. The publishing rights then returned to Mohawk Games, the developer.

"So what you had was a developer who had been basically cut off from financing from the publisher mid way in development. So in that circumstance, they went to Epic to make a deal for an exclusive that provided all the funding they needed to complete the game."

"In that sort of circumstance, it's definitely pro-consumer," Bender added.

Released for early access in May 2020, Old World features the design chops of Soren Johnson, the lead designer of Civilization IV. He also worked on Civilization III as co-lead designer. Johnson is also the current co-founder of Mohawk Games.

Notably, Old World, not to be confused with the MMORPG New World from Amazon Game Studios, was originally titled 10 Crowns.

Besides the Civ-looking gameplay, Old World also offers RPG elements, where you play as historical characters and their successors and dynasties.

The exclusivity with Epic looks set to end in Q2 of 2022, when the game will launch on Steam with an expansion.

Besides Old World, Hooded Horse is planning to release three other strategy games for the market on Steam.

Terra Invicta, which sees gamers play one of seven factions trying to conquer the Solar System, Falling Frontier, a sci-fi RTS in a procedurally generated star system, and Alliance of the Sacred Suns, a 4X space game.

Aloysius Low is an ex-CNET editor with more than 15 years of experience. He's really into cats and is currently reviewing products at canbuyornot.com

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