When FromSoftware unveiled its newest game, the upcoming action-adventure title Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, the studio also quirked more than a few eyebrows when it said it was developing the game with the help of Activision, the massive publishing company best known for properties such as Call of Duty, Destiny, and Skylanders to name a few. Activision hasn’t always been the most consumer-friendly company, but it was apparently one of the only non-Asian game publishers that was willing to wholly support FromSoftware’s vision for Sekiro.
Speaking in the same GamesIndustry.biz interview where he also revealed that Sekiro began life as a new Tenchu game, FromSoftware community manager Yasuhiro Kitao also spoke at length about the difficulties the studio faced trying to find a publisher outside of its usual Japan/Asia purview (FromSoftware is based in Japan). According to Kitao, From pitched Sekiro to a number of different publishers, but the only company that was both interested in the game and, more importantly, interested in fully backing From’s core vision for the game was Activision:
“Initially when we had this project proposal we took it to a number of companies. We don’t have the clout to publish outside of Asia and Japan, and so Activision was one of the companies we approached and one of the companies who said they would like to talk. And they absolutely loved the idea; they loved the project right from the start. They really respected our vision, and also along the way they were able to provide user testing and feedback that we simply can’t handle so it was really beneficial.”
Kitao also mentioned how getting to develop Sekiro is a bit of a dream come true for From since the studio has wanted to make a game set in Feudal Japan for quite some time. To most gaming fans, From is known as the developer behind the Dark Souls series, a series set in a grim fantasy world that utilizes European medieval trappings. Even From’s other well-known property, the PS4-exclusive Bloodborne, has an overt theme of European gothic horror.
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is scheduled to launch on March 22, 2019 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.