German games company Koch Media has revealed that it is launching a new publishing label called Prime Matter.
Koch Media describes Prime Matter as a: “Premium gaming label dedicated to delivering brilliant immersive games from studios all across the world.” Koch Media described the motivation behind launching Prime Matter: “Due to continual growth of Koch Media as the go-to global publishing service provider for developers big and small, the company decided to expand its label portfolio to meet the ever-growing demands and opportunities across an ever more diverse audience.”
Prime Matter’s online launch event included glimpses and some more in-depth looks at games which the industry’s newest label will publish. New games based on existing intellectual properties which will be released under the Prime Matter banner include Starbreeze’s much-anticipated co-op heist first-person shooter Payday 3; Crossfire Legion, the latest global warfare RTS from Canadian developer Blackbird Interactive; mediaeval RPG King’s Bounty II from Russia’s 1C Entertainment; and a new Painkiller game. The latter was the sketchiest of teases: Koch Media acquired the rights to Painkiller last May, in an IP swap with THQ Nordic.
Perhaps the most exciting titles due to be published by Prime Matter can be found among an impressively extensive – and geographically diverse, developer-wise — raft of new intellectual properties. Among those, stand-out titles included The Last Oricru, under development by Czech studio GoldKnights, a third-person action-RPG which mixes a mediaeval vibe with sci-fi elements.
Brazilian developer Massive Work Studios is chipping in with Dolmen, another action-RPG that looked likely to cause problems for arachnophobes. South Korean studio IGGYMOB will see its bullet-heavy action-shooter Gungrave GORE published by Prime Matter, and Polish developer Reikon Games is working on a futuristic first-person shooter currently codenamed Final Form, which it promises will see you: “Taking on the role of a cybernetic Valkyrie saving humanity from extinction.”
And there’s more: Prime Matter will publish Serbian Studio Mad Head Games’ Scars Above, a: “Dark sci-fi action adventure that sees a lone protagonist having to survive on a hostile nightmare world”; Echoes Of The End, a fantasy-world action-adventure from Icelandic studio Myrkur Games; The Chant, a third-person psychological horror from Canadian outfit Studio Brass Token; and Encased, a “Classic RPG” from Russian developer Dark Crystal Games.
What is Prime Matter all about?
Koch Media explained that Prime Matter is intended to be very much a publisher of “premium” triple-A games, with its focus firmly on supporting and nurturing a diverse group of developers, both known quantities and up-and-coming newcomers.
It certainly arrives with a portfolio of games which is impressively large and created by an array of developers spread out all around the globe – although, inevitably, many of the games teased at Prime Matter’s launch event will take years to make it to release.
Mario Gerhold, Koch Media’s Global Brand & Marketing Director (Games), offered some insight into the creation of the new publisher: “Games originate from the minds and hearts of the developers. Prime Matter is focused on maximising this potential from the studios whilst empowering their dream or vision; one of our core values is to enable and support the studios, giving them the chance and freedom to express themselves within their game as they deserve.”
Astonishingly, the advent of Prime Matter means that Koch Media now has five publishing labels, the other four being Deep Silver, Milestone, Vertigo and Ravenscourt. Some of those are specialist or locally focused – Milestone, for example, based in Italy, concentrates on driving games, while Deep Silver gives Koch Media, a German company, a prominent UK-based publishing presence. Prime Matter, in that context, is clearly intended to be a flagship, global brand.
Koch Media’s CEO Klemens Kundratitz said: “Over the past 25 years of success, we have seen Koch Media grow significantly. From ambitious indies taking their first step who need that full development and publishing support without compromising their dream, through to big studios that required our well-established global distribution and publishing network; the more opportunities we created the more it made sense to add an additional string to our bow.” Essentially, Kundratitz is saying that Koch Media has grown so big that it felt the need to establish a new global publishing brand that could give it a shot at competing with the likes of Ubisoft, EA, 2K Games and Activision. Whether Prime Matter achieves that aim will remain to be seen, and depends largely on the quality of the games that it puts out. But any new, ambitious source of triple-A games has to represent good news for gamers.
