Death Inc: plague-spreading strategy from the makers of Fable, Burnout and LittleBigPlanet

Typical monolithic corporations, profiting off the misery of others. No, I'm not espousing some knee-jerk sixth-form anti-capitalist sentiment, that's literally what's happening in Death Inc , the upcoming game from Ambient Studios, made up from alumni of Media Molecule, Lionhead and Criterion. Set in 1660s England, the Ministry of Mortality are in the business of death. And business is good.

You'll play as Grim T. Livingstone, formerly an Assistant Underreaper at the corporation. He's gone freelance, founding Death Inc, a startup that aims to put some heart back into the business of stopping hearts.

Billed as "streamlined strategy", Death Inc aims to reduce micromanagement and simplify menus by having you paint your orders into the map. It looks a bit like a reverse Populous: Your job is to spread the plague through rennaissance England, across towns, castles and villages, in order to make a name for your new company. The game will offer special abilities, like plague rats and exploding livestock, and let you purchase new abilities and "slick office decor and bonuses".

Full details over at the game's website . Ambient Studios plan to launch a Kickstarter for Death Inc on February 4th.

Phil has been writing for PC Gamer for nearly a decade, starting out as a freelance writer covering everything from free games to MMOs. He eventually joined full-time as a news writer, before moving to the magazine to review immersive sims, RPGs and Hitman games. Now he leads PC Gamer's UK team, but still sometimes finds the time to write about his ongoing obsessions with Destiny 2, GTA Online and Apex Legends. When he's not levelling up battle passes, he's checking out the latest tactics game or dipping back into Guild Wars 2. He's largely responsible for the whole Tub Geralt thing, but still isn't sorry.