Munich, Monday, APRIL 3rd 2023 – PLAION, a leading independent developer, publisher and distributor of entertainment products, is proud to announce a newly signed publishing deal with Straight4 Studios. The newly formed studio is led by veteran sim racing developer, Ian Bell, whose resume includes titles such as Need for Speed: Shift, Test Drive: Ferrari Racing Legends, Shift 2: Unleashed, and the GTR and Project CARS franchises.
“The much-anticipated return of one of sim racing’s most iconic development teams has been immeasurably strengthened by our strategic partnership with PLAION. The whole team has been energized by what PLAION will bring to our game,” said Kevin Boland, Chief Development Officer at Straight4.
The strategic partnership will be focused on development of a yet to be announced sim racing title which is being built by many of the key talents behind Slightly Mad Studios along with a team of other industry veterans.
“Our vision for this new game is a hardcore racing sim with a commitment to bringing the community the kind of simulation and modding tools they want. PLAION immediately understood our ambition and potential and we have every confidence that this new partnership will play a defining role in pushing the sim racing industry to a whole new level of realism and fun,” said Ian Bell, CEO at Straight4 Studios.
“We’re always on the lookout to find new partners to work with and bring something truly special to our audiences. Straight4 Studios has a fantastic vision and a team with an outstanding list of games under their belt. Racing Sim fans, this will be one to look out for,” said Klemens Kundratitz, CEO at PLAION.
The new title will launch on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox and will be the spiritual return to the glory days of sim racing’s past while featuring a new, bespoke physics engine and cutting-edge graphics.
For more information, please visit plaion.com & press.plaion.com
More details about the Studio: straight4.com & twitter
With over 20 years’ worth of remote work experience and working from three continents, Straight4 Studios’ veteran staff have earned dozens of industry awards.
Merging the passion for motorsport and values derived from the sim racing community with the precision of a new, AI-driven physics engine and cutting-edge graphics, Straight4 Studios is hard at work developing the next generation of AAA-racing simulation.
PLAION runs a multi-label strategy, with fully owned publishing units, such as Deep Silver, Prime Matter, Milestone, Vertigo Games and Ravenscourt, publishing games for consoles, PC and VR platforms across all physical and digital channels.
Additionally - as a global publishing partner - PLAION has formed long-term multinational publishing collaborations with numerous game publishers including Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, Capcom, Focus Multimedia, Giants Software, Koei Tecmo, Paradox, Sega, SNK, Square Enix, Techland, THQ Nordic, Tripwire, Warner Bros and many others.
With its parent company in Höfen, Austria - and the HQ in Munich, Germany - PLAION owns local publishing companies in Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Australia, the United States as well as Japan and Hong Kong.
PLAION owns nine game development studios: Deep Silver Dambuster Studios (Nottingham, UK), Fishlabs (Hamburg, DE), Warhorse Studios (Prague, CZ), Milestone (Milan, IT), Voxler (Paris, FR) , DigixArt (Montpellier, FR), Flying Wild Hog (Warsaw, Kraków, Rzeszów, PL), Free Radical Design (Nottingham, UK) and Vertigo Games (Rotterdam, Amsterdam, NL). Additionally, PLAION collaborates with numerous independent development studios around the world.
Part of PLAION is also PLAION PICTURES, a leading independent film distributor in Europe with a library of more than 1.400 titles. Further business operations include Sola Media, a sales agency and production company for family entertainment, Spotfilm Networx, a multi-channel streaming network, and a sub-label dedicated to Japanese animation.
PLAION also owns the leading video game merchandise company DPI Merchandising (Denver, Roseburg, USA and Munich, DE) and a Quality Assurance Facility in Olomouc, CZ.
PLAION is an Embracer Group company.