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Kalypso Media today launched two new titles at gamescom. Spacebase Startopia blends economic management with RTS skirmishes, but adds a comedic element with a fully voiced AI narrator to gently chide your efforts through the ten-mission campaign, which sits alongside numerous other single and multiplayer modes.
Then there’s Port Royale 4, a return to the past in more ways than one. The title recreates the conflicts of the Caribbean, in the colonial 17th century, but also is a return to a franchise that’s been untouched since its third iteration back in 2012. As well as developing the islands and building trade routes, there’s turn-based naval combat to contend with.
The two titles make up just part of a broad range of strategy titles for Kalypso at the show, said Anika Thun, international marketing director at Kalypso Media, to MCV@gamescom: “This year we’ve got one of our biggest ever games line-ups, which includes Tropico 6 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, along with the Commandos 2 HD Remaster, Praetorians HD Remaster, the recently-announced Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars and our two newest announcements… In recent years we’ve had a mix of different genres but this time around we’ve got a purely strategy-focused line-up”
And the publisher comes to gamescom on a high, Thun explained: “We’ve seen some huge successes in recent months, with the recent launch of Tropico 6 on PC being the best in the series’ history, which is really pleasing and shows that we’re identifying what’s best for gamers as well as what works well for us as a publisher. ”
Gamescom looks to be seeing increasing numbers of new titles announced, with Thun upbeat about the timing and presence of the show.
“At Kalypso we find it’s held at a good time of year for us, where our announcements can have some real weight and target a different window to the typical windows associated with the likes of E3. We attend those shows too wherever possible of course, but gamescom is a consistently well-performing show for us on just about every level and we’ve been really pleased to see it grow and go from strength to strength every year.”
And she was upbeat about the challenges facing the industry at wide too.
“I think the games industry as a whole is in a pretty good place. The changing nature of retail is a challenge of course, and publishers are always adapting and changing to try and best connect with our audience, while new and emerging markets are providing opportunities such as streaming or subscription models.
“In terms of the games themselves, what’s clear from a publishing perspective is that we have to support our releases as much as possible, and we do that by constantly gathering feedback from our players and implementing that feedback as part of ongoing free updates to our games, mixed in with meaningful, high-quality paid content. Recent titles like Railway Empire, Dungeons 3 and Sudden Strike 4 have shown our commitment to this games-as-a-service approach, to keep gamers entertained and engaged for as long as possible.”
Returning to the single genre nature of the company’s line-up this year, Thun finished: “We love strategy and the diversity and quality of the games we’re showing at gamescom shows how much depth there is to the genre as a whole. It’s a genre that’s constantly growing and innovating and we’re so excited to be a part of it.”
Read more of our gamescom 2019 coverage.
