Sabotage Studios Next Game

When I think of Sabotage, two things come to mind: The first is the 1994 Beastie Boys music video for Sabotage, but the second and more important is what type of game will Sabotage Studios do next?

Sabotage Studios are one of the hottest indie studios around at the moment. After landing a publishing deal for The Messenger, they were catapulted to the front of the class. Not only does being published by Devolver Digital help do that for you, but The Messenger was also a fantastic game. It was a side scrolling action game deeply inspired by the 8 bit era, more specifically Ninja Gaiden. The Messenger also had a pretty cool party trick up its sleeve, as it was also secretly a Metroidvania all along as it transitioned to 16 bit.

The Quebec based studio followed The Messenger up with a SNES style turn based RPG, drawing heavy inspiration from Chrono Trigger, which is beloved at the studio. The big difference this time around was that Sabotage was going to be self publishing, as well as seeing what the interest was on Kickstarter first. Sea of Stars quickly raised over a million dollars, which was more than enough to show the team there was strong interest.

Fast forward a few years and Sea of Stars is critically acclaimed title, sitting at an astounding 98% on opencritic. We labelled it our indie game of the year in 2023 saying

“At the exact moment where most games overstay their welcome, Sea of Stars shifts gears with new locations, new party members, new upgrades, new plot details to unravel, new gameplay, new skills that kept it feeling fresh throughout it’s 30 hour story that was constantly engaging. With Sea of Stars, not only have they proven not to be a one hit wonder by stepping into another genre, but without a doubt they have established themselves in elite company with only a handful of other studios”

In a brief period of time and just two games, Sabotage Studios have made two things very clear: They don’t like to be boxed in, and they love 90’s gaming. Following the pattern, it should become a little easier to narrow down what Sabotage Studios will likely do for their third game.

As they have began with 8 bit and evolved to 16 bit for their second game, it would be a safe presumption to expect their third game to go to the next generation after that which would be the N64/PS1 generation.

As Sabotage appears to be a studio that doesn’t like to be boxed in by doing the same thing twice, it would also seem sensible to eliminate any Metroidvanias, side scrolling action, and RPG’s. They seem to want a challenge. During the Sea of Stars documentary by The Escapist, Thierry Boulanger, who is the founder and creative director at Sabotage said

“Moving forward we are definitely sticking with pixel art. I don’t think it’s off the table to do retro 3D like N64 or PlayStation 1”

If you take a look at the 90’s through the lens of what was popular, and what Saboatge haven’t already done, you aren’t left with too many potential genres. It comes down to three things,

1. What genres have Sabotage already explored?,

2. What genres were popular during the 90’s (specifically PS1 and N64 Era) and

3. What the market needs today?

When looking at the 90’s, there are two genres that were born and exploded in the 90’s, but don’t make sense for Sabotage: kart racers and survival horror. Despite their popularity then and even now, they are somewhat niche. Trying to do one of these games would be limiting potential and Sabotage need to cast a wide net for the best chance at success. After we have evaluated everything there are three potential genres for Sabotage to explore with their third game: First Person Shooter, 3D Platformer, and Stealth/Espionage.

FIRST PERSON SHOOTER

Obviously Doom is one of the most iconic FPS of all time, which came out years earlier on PC, but still played a role on both the PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64. However each console both offered plenty of original entries in the ascending genre. On the Nintendo 64, there was games like Goldeneye which basically catapulted FPS on consoles as well as Pefect Dark and Turok. Not to be outdone PS1 also offered some FPS gems like Medal of Honor that birthed a sub genre, which still strongly exists today as well as games like Alien Resurrection and Powerslave.

3D PLATFORMER

The Nintendo 64 and PS1 era was a revolutionary moment in gaming with many new genres created during this timeframe and none played a bigger role than the three dimensional platfomrer. Nintendo paved the way with Super Mario 64 and the Nintendo 64 would see other classics like Banjo Kazooie. PlayStation saw this success and even created an identity around their offerings. Crash Bandicoot from Naughty Dog played a very important role in marketing the PS1. It wasn’t quite the same thing as what Nintendo was offering but it was three dimensional and it was a platformer. PlayStation would continue to try and compete in this arena with exclusives like Spryo The Dragon.

ESPIONAGE

The final dark horse of potential genres would be the stealth espionage genre, which truly blossomed during the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation 1 era. Metal Gear Solid from Hideo Kojima was a watershed moment for PlayStation that went on to span sequels decades after. On the N64, there were games like Mission Impossible and Winback that didn’t fully embrace the stealth aspect, but were focused around the espionage principal. Back on PlayStation there were also games like Tenchu and Syphon Filter.

Before, you think Sabotage might be above doing some of these genres, its important to end on the the words of the founder, who said “I’ll guess we’ll keep on making what people don’t expect”

FILLING THE VOID

I think all three genres would be really interesting for Sabotage to explore, but if I had to pick one, I would base our decision of their quote about the unexpected. The most expected genre for the studio out of the three options would be the 3D platfomer.

However, we would think that the most unexpected would be First Person Shooter. First, I think first person shooter likely casts the widest net, but more importantly, Sabotage seems like a studio that can offer a lot to the genre. If there is one thing that a lot of FPS games are missing, it’s a strong narrative built around a single player campaign. Sabotage Studios could fill this void.

Worth the Wait

Finally, as to try and figure out when we might get to enjoy Sabotage’s next game, it would seem sensible to expect no earlier than 2028. The Messenger came out in 2018 and Sea of Stars came out in 2023. The most basic reasoning is that we have five years between games and at least part of the studio remained on Sea of Stars to complete the “Throes of the Watchmaker” DLC, which is coming in 2025 and will also be free. You also have to assume that whatever the studio is working on will be bigger and better than their previous games. Boulanger even said that if the team do decide to go down the 3D path, it will be just like devs in the 90’s when they had to learn and figure out how to program in 3D, since the team is built around 2D.