More Syndicate Rumor Mongering

I love a good rumor as much as the next guy, so this juicy rumor about Starbreeze developing a new Syndicate game is certainly super delicious. According to a source close to the company, confiding in GameIndustry.biz - who is apparently great at keeping secrets (remind me not to tell them about that drunken bender I had in Tijuana in ‘89) - says that the rumor is true. The project which Starbreeze has called “Project Redlime” is apparently a new Syndicate game being developed for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3. The original Syndicate series was created by Peter Molyneux’s Bullfrog Studios, which was eventually acquired by EA.

GameIndustry.biz surmises that work on this game will have to wait until after Starbreeze finishes the work it is doing for EA on the next Robert Ludlum Bourne game, which EA acquired the rights to when Activision dumped the rights earlier this year. Naturally all of this is supposition and rumor, and EA is not commenting on any of it. If it is true, EA could do worse: Starbreeze is responsible for such hits as The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and The Darkness..

we’ve put a request out to EA for comment in the meantime.

The Darkness 2 Revealed?

When it comes to the comic book industry Paul Jenkins is a household name. His impressive resume includes writing credits on such Marvel hits as The Sentry, Peter Parker: The Amazing Spider-Man, The Civil War series and Wolverine (my personal favorite) and a four year writing stint on the DC Comics hit Hellblazer. But we know him best as the writer behind the hit video game The Darkness. That game, or rather the future of that franchise, is the focus of this story.

This week Paul Jenkins will be speaking at the CUSP 2008 conference in Chicago, an annual event that puts the spotlight on creativity, thinking and the arts. But what is important to note is not necessarily Jenkins’ speech at the event (which will be interesting in its own right), but rather his profile on the CUSP 2008 conference official site.

According to that profile Jenkins is “currently working on a sequel to The Darkness.” While there are no details there on the game, it as good a confirmation as any that The Darkness 2 (or whatever name it will go by) is being written and may well be in production.

2K Games  neither confirmed or denied the story: “We haven’t announced anything regarding The Darkness so while we appreciate your enthusiastic speculation, we simply don’t have anything to say at this point.”

We will have more on this story as it develops.  Crispy Game Trust member David Chapman contributed to this story.