Obsidian working with Allods Online devs to make Skyforge

In news that's likely to make you go, "wait, what?", Mail.ru have announced that Obsidian Entertainment will be collaborating with Allods Online developer Allods Team on their upcoming free-to-play MMO Skyforge. Wait, what?

The announcement was made last week at KRI 2013, the Russian Game Developer's Conference. While Obsidian are no strangers to getting involved in other people's licenses - having previously taken on sequels for BioWare and Bethesda - this is their first MMO collaboration with a Russian development team. It's an unusual move for the studio, who are also currently working on the Kickstarted Project Eternity.

"Skyforge is a very interesting and promising project and I am glad that Obsidian Entertainment is involved in working on this game," said Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart, via a Russian press release that I've Google Translated. "I am confident that the cooperation with the Allods Team will be a great experience for all of us."

Of course, this is the same Google Translate that, elsewhere in the press release, suggests the sentence: "We are happy in your heart and confidence in the head can reveal the secret that the development of Skyforge joined the company Obsidian Entertainment." So Urquhart's exact phrasing remains something of a mystery.

If last year's announcement trailer is anything to go by, Allods Team have again gone all out on the world design. Hopefully Obsidian's involvement will lead to more interesting questing, and less restrictive free-to-play design, both things that plagued Allods Online. Skip to the 7-minute mark to see the game in action.

Skyforge is expected to launch in 2014.

Thanks, GamesIndustry (via RPS ).

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.