Funko, of dead-eyed plastic figurine fame, is partnering with recently-founded game studio 10:10 Games to produce a line of videogames based on Funko's discomforting pop-culture homunculi.
The news was announced on the final day of San Diego Comic Con, at Funko's Pop! Talk panel. The first Funko project, which is also 10:10's first game as a studio, is promised to be a "AAA Action Platformer" releasing in 2023. Funko isn't revealing the name yet, but the company does say that the final product is slated to be rated "T" for Teen.
We are so excited to finally reveal that we have teamed up with Funko for our first game! pic.twitter.com/CKbyNK6FwOJuly 24, 2022
10:10 isn't the only studio working on Funko's opus. The game is also set to include "major third party studio integration," meaning that Funko will presumably be reaching out to other developers to help construct its vision. Sadly, who those developers are is a mystery for the time being.
The idea of a whole line of games based on the Funko licence is, of course, terrifying, but 10:10 does have some recognisable names behind it. The studio was founded by industry veteran Jon Burton in summer last year. Burton also co-founded Traveller's Tales way back in 1989 and acted as a director or lead designer on a whole bunch of Lego games, quite a few of which were very good.
As for Funko, well, there's no shortage of Funko Pop dolls based on big-name game series, but Funko's ventures into the videogame world haven't been enormously impactful. Gears POP!—a mobile RTS which had you control Funko-fied characters from Gears of War—was shuttered without fanfare in April last year. You can still download and play Funko Pop Blitz! on your phone or tablet, though.
Funko seems determined to menace digital society in one way or another. In December last year, the company announced a line of Funko NFTs, dubiously including a "Bob Ross Digital Pop!" NFT in their number. Hopefully, this upcoming game will only rattle our aesthetic sensibilities rather than our moral ones.
