“Critical Path Games is a community of talented game developers in search of the next great video game genre“. Needless to say, it looks like a Linkedin hook. The problem with this kind of promise is that we end up believing in it, and the public’s expectation is then only larger, at the risk of finding yourself cut down by a disappointing result, like wheat by a combine harvester.
Critical Strike
But far be it from us to question the enthusiasm and Great Expectations of Critical Path Games. The studio’s founding duo is a pair of industry veterans. After 3 years at BioWare as an Administrative Assistant, then 3 years at EA as Production Coordinator, Jeanne-Marie Owens was part of Phoenix Labs for nine years, and evolved there until becoming “chief operating officer” (position of production director). Jesse Houston sharpened his skills at Ubisoft as Production Director from 2004 to 2007, before working at BioWare from 2007 to 2012 (project manager on Mass Effect 2 on PS3 and on the Japanese version of the game, producer on Mass Effect 3). Then he joined Riot Games from 2012 to 2014 as Senior Producer on League of Legends. He then took off to found Phoenix Labs in 2014. Nine years later, he left his position to create Critical Path Games alongside Jeanne-Marie Owens.
Far from the big machines to which they may have belonged, Owens and Houston wish to create an entity on a human scale, based on values of “trust and collaboration“. While the studio’s official website proudly displays the desire to conquer/create a new genre of video game, it specifies that Critical Path Games’ first project will be “a new multiplayer, cross-platform game that gamers around the world will love“. This is all the evil we wish them.
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