With there being quite a few extraction shooters coming out these days, how does Exoborne seek to separate itself from the pack?

We love shooters. Especially high-stakes variants, like extraction shooters. Some of us even worked on one of the very first games with an extraction mode, Tom Clancy’s the Division. What I think makes Exoborne stand out is a mix of things really – not one single thing alone. The combination of dynamic forces of nature that affects game-play, fluid traversal and the Exo-Rigs create a unique experience within the high-risk / high-reward shooter segment. There is nothing quite like it out there as far as I know.

Forces of nature, like storms and tornadoes, exist to a degree in other PvP games. None have integrated it to the same level we have however. They really help shape and evolve a session, forcing you to adapt and strategize on the fly. “No plan survives contact with the enemy” has never been as true as when a firenado barrels down on your extraction point!

The traversal is something we played around with in Bloodhunt, Sharkmobs first game. We have honed that experience and tweaked it, taking many learnings with us to make sure it becomes a fluid traversal experience both in the vertical and horizontal space. That allows you to flank, take advantage of wind, fly long distances using the glider, grapple up cliff walls or rooftops etc. Since the exo-rigs prevent you from taking fall damage you can really play around with it and allow yourself to pull off crazy moves.

And then the Exo-Rigs, the literal backbone of any Exoborne warrior. It is a mobility, weapon and abilities platform allowing you to create the playstyle you want. By modding it, combining it with special abilities and bringing the guns of your choosing you can either adapt it to excel under certain conditions, be a jack of all trades or fill a specific role in your team of three.

"It is a mobility, weapon and abilities platform allowing you to create the playstyle you want."

How often can players expect to run into other players in a general outing in Exoborne?

In Exoborne, player encounters are designed to be dynamic and unpredictable, influenced by the game’s unique features. The pacing of these encounters is crucial, and it’s something we continuously monitor in all our past and upcoming playtests. It’s difficult to give an exact frequency, as this depends on many factors. For example, players might choose to stick to the outskirts of the map to scavenge or deliberately avoid high-risk areas during a particular run. Even the Forces of Nature can impact how often players run into each other. On a bright, sunny day, you might be able to spot enemies from a distance, but if a heavy fog rolls in, and you’re not equipped for spotting, you may need to rethink your approach and retreat.

The key takeaway is that the danger of PvP is always present. In addition to the dynamic world, the Forces of Nature keep you on your toes, ensuring that no two encounters are ever the same.

What kinds of meaningful progression can we expect from Exoborne?

Exoborne progression is primarily based around your Exo-Rig and your player base. Serving different purposes, they get advanced by performing assignments, finding valuables, doing successful extracts etc. A bunch of activities count towards your progression and even if you die you can expect to gain something. That long term progression is super crucial, because it allows us to keep high risk in every session. We noticed that a game like this requires the risk of losing everything when you go on a raid, at the same time players need to know they haven’t wasted their time and have nothing to show for it.

Will there be things aside from scavenged loot and weapons that players can find in the world?

Yes, in addition to scavenged loot and weapons, Exoborne features several other valuable items that players can find in the world, each contributing to the high-risk, high-reward gameplay. One of the most notable being Artifacts which may contain the highest value loot like mods that unlock new abilities for your Exo- Rig. These artifacts come in different tiers, with the highest-tier artifacts marking you on the map for all other players to see. This creates an intense risk-reward dynamic—while these powerful artifacts can offer great rewards, they also make you a target, encouraging players to weigh the risks of carrying them versus the potential benefits.

Another key element is Data Fragments, which are scattered throughout the world. These fragments are essential for unlocking important locations like Rebirth Facilities or special crates, adding another layer of strategy and progression. Players will have to decide whether to go after these data fragments and risk confrontation or focus on other objectives.

Additionally, scattered around the map are story elements that help deepen the narrative and world-building. These pieces of lore give players a richer understanding of the Exoborne universe, enhancing immersion and offering context as they explore.

"In addition to scavenged loot and weapons, Exoborne features several other valuable items that players can find in the world"

Are there any plans for a potential PvE-only mode in Exoborne?

Currently no. The initial experience is focused around PvPvE – they feed off each other and really require each other to provide a tense, thrilling experience. What happens in the future though, we will just have to see!

What kinds of special abilities will players be able to use with the Exo-Rig?

In Exoborne, everything you can do is tied to your loadout—you are what you carry. By adding mods to your Exo-Rig, you can unlock a variety of abilities. These range from basic tools, like frag grenades, to more exciting and expansive skills that interact with the Forces of Nature.

For example, there are passive abilities that can give you an edge in extreme weather conditions, like making you immune to lightning strikes during a storm, allowing you to move freely while others are forced to take cover. You can even harness lightning itself as an active skill, using it as a weapon to zap your enemies.

Even less dangerous elements, like heavy fog, can be leveraged with the right Exo-Rig mod. In these conditions, you can mark enemies for yourself and your team, giving you the upper hand to sneak up on them or eliminate them from a distance before they even know you’re there.

The ability to adapt to these changing environments and leverage the Forces of Nature for your advantage adds a unique layer of strategy and excitement to combat

How has the response been for the Exoborne playtests?

We have a “community first” mindset in the team. This means we test early and test often. Even though we are just gearing up for our first major online tests, we have been running several smaller ones for quite some time. Depending on where in the project you are, the feedback is of course different. We are eagerly looking forward to the feedback from this playtest, as it is the most advanced and comprehensive build to date.

"Even less dangerous elements, like heavy fog, can be leveraged with the right Exo-Rig mod."

As a developer, what are your thoughts on the PS5 Pro? How does boost in GPU help in developing your game compared to the base PS5?

As with any new technology, we’re always looking at how to best leverage it for our game. While I can’t share specific details just yet, I know our teams are actively exploring its potential, and we’ll have more to share in the near future.

What are your thoughts on PSSR? What kind of opportunities will this open for the game?

We don’t have any details to share just yet. As we say above – we’re open to how it can enhance the game, and we’ll provide more updates in the future.

Do you have plans to launch the game on Nintendo Switch 2?

Given how hot off the press this announcement is, we think it’s too early to say.

Exoborne takes place in a parallel alternate timeline, where mankind is facing a looming climate disaster in the near future. In an attempt to battle the climate disaster, humanity tried something called Project Rebirth, which ultimately results in an even worse disaster.

Players are caught up in a mysterious conflict, the details of which become clearer the more time players spend in Exoborne.

One of the key features of Exoborne is set to be its world, complete with dynamic nature that will affect the various fights players can get into against each other or AI opponents. For example, while a player might be looking forward to grabbing some loot from a building, that whole area can end up getting caught in a massive tornado, drastically shifting the player’s priorities.

Exoborne was announced back in 2023, and while it doesn’t yet have a full release date, it is confirmed to be coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Exoborne currently doesn’t have a release date, and according to the announcement development on the game is still ongoing. With the trailer, the studio wants to showcase the game’s world and its vision.

Exoborne seems to be set shortly after an apocalyptic event of some sort, as humanity is on the verge of a global collapse after the failure of Project Rebirth. This has turned the world into a hostile place. The primary setting for Exoborne part of southeastern US.

Players are put in the shoes of survivors fitted with implants that allow them to use Exo-Rigs, and are called Reborn. This allows players to take on the deadly environments of the world as they fight against each other in their hunt for new supplies and weapons.

According to the announcement, Exoborne will also have a focus on verticality, and players will have to explore and fight their way through zones that make use of vertical space with various tools in their arsenal.

Exoborne doesn’t have a release date, but is slated to come to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

As confirmed by The Game Awards’ official Twitter account, at next week’s show, a new game by Sharkmob (Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt) and Tencent-owned Level Infinite (Assassin’s Creed Jade, SYNCED) will be announced. An accompanied sneak peak of the game’s announcement also makes ominous promises of an incoming storm. Check it out below.

Sharkmob’s website might give some clues as to what the game will be, with the developer stating that the two unannounced projects it has in development are both AAA titles built on Unreal Engine 5 for PC and current-gen consoles, featuring “action-packed, online, social” elements.

As for what other announcements you can expect at The Game Awards, Larian Studios will be announcing a release date for Baldur’s Gate 3 on Xbox Series X/S, while we will also be seeing new upcoming content for Warframe and Crash Team Rumble. 

Sega, Microsoft, and the developer of Inscryption have also teased important announcements for the showcase, and a Death Stranding 2 showing may also potentially have been teased.

A storm is coming!

Make sure to watch #TheGameAwards for the reveal of @SharkmobGames and @LevelInfinite's new game!

Watch it live on Dec 7 at 7:30PM ET / 4:30PM PT / Dec 8 at 1:30 CET#Sharkmob #LevelInfinite pic.twitter.com/3p0ab6gmIf

— The Game Awards (@thegameawards) December 1, 2023

In its statement on the official website, the studio reveals that plans to end development on the game came from the game not getting the critical mass in players it needed to sustain development. While Sharkmob hasn’t stated exactly how long the game’s servers will stay live, it promises to keep Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt going as long as players are still playing.

“Ever since launch, we have been on a journey to excite and delight our players, however, while we have an amazing and very engaged community, we haven’t been able to reach the critical mass needed to sustain development,” the developer wrote. “This has led us to the decision to stop further development of Bloodhunt.

“With that said, Bloodhunt servers will stay up and the game will remain available to play. Our aim is to keep the servers going for as long as we have an active player base and community. For those who enjoy the game and want to continue playing, we have worked on some solutions to ensure that the game continues to be interesting.”

Players will continue to unlock new content and cosmetics in the game through a new in-game player voting system. The studio is also planning on disabling real currency purchasing on September 26. The game is slated to get a way for players to earn in-game tokens so that they can continue to unlock cosmetics.

“An in-game player voting system will be deployed to regularly unlock new things and keep Bloodhunt fresh,” Sharkmob wrote. “We will share more granular details about how this system works when we get closer to releasing our next update, which will be the last planned patch for Bloodhunt. Beyond that update, patches will only be related to maintenance.

“We are also looking at turning off real currency purchasing on September 26th. Before this happens, we will implement a way to earn in-game tokens more easily so players can continue to play and unlock cosmetics beyond this date.”

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt was originally released back in April 2022. The battle royale has since seen quite a few updates, including the addition of a team deathmatch game mode, as well as a move away from seasonal content schedules to facilitate faster development of new content.

So, as producer David Sirland told VG247, the studio is moving away from seasons with its Summer Update. “The biggest change here is we are essentially saying that we’re not going to do seasons anymore in the traditional sense. When we launched the game, we did a 12-week standard season with a Battle Pass of 100 levels and similar value to other competitors out there.

“We realized, quite quickly into the season, that we can’t really sustain this as the team we are – and it’s also hurting us because the content plan is essentially holding us back from making quicker gameplay updates faster, and fixing the key aspects of the game that our core players are screaming for in some cases.”

The new goal is “time to player” with the target being to “get into a monthly cadence for gameplay updates. It might not be that initially, but that’s the goal for those updates. Bug fixes and responses to issues will be separate from content updates too. That sort of thing that will go straight into the game and be worked on continuously.”

Another change is to the Battle Pass, which is getting smaller but will also be cheaper. “We want to try and see if it’s better to do 100 ranks and make it cheaper? Are shorter passes released more often better? That’s something we will work on for sure as we go forward, and we don’t expect this one to last the full 12 weeks,” said Sirland.

The Summer Update introduces a new mode in Team Deathmatch which sees two teams of eight players fighting for supremacy. There are five maps based on Prague with unlimited respawns and the first team to reach the score limit wins. It’s starting as a beta since “We want to make sure that we really adjust the new mode based on how players play. The core audience will probably look at Team Deathmatch as a nice warm-up. And, you know, a really good way to sort of hone in on the mechanics of all our archetypes and the guns, and so on.

“While our casual player base, which is also a target for this mode, probably views Team Deathmatch as a really good way to figure out the base game much faster than playing a royale where you die really quickly.”

As such, royale players aren’t being excluded. The update will also include the Ventrue train in the Train Station among other new additions. It’s out on July 14th so stay tuned for more details when the update goes live.

The highlight of Bloodhunt‘s Summer Update is the new Team Deathmatch mode coming to the game. It will be launching as a beta, and will feature two 8-player teams that will fight it out. The game mode will have unlimited respawns, with the goal being for the teams to reach the score limit. Team Deathmatch will have five unique areas in Prague as its maps: Slaughterhouse, Disco, Hotel, Construction, and Harbor.

The main battle royale game mode will also be getting a few additions to its map, including the Ventrue train in the Train Station. As part of the update, players will now be able to meet the Ventrue primogen Em in Elysium’s new Ventrue area.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt is a free-to-play game available on PC and PS5.

As a vampire, you have enhanced mobility for navigating the city, resulting in more fast-paced combat. Along with ranged and melee combat, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt lets you swear allegiance to one of four vampire clans for unique abilities. In terms of firearms, you’ll have access to assault rifles, crossbows, SMGs and whatnot.

Solo and Trios modes are available along with a Ranked playlist.  Of course, customization options for different outfits, hairstyles and whatnot are available to create your own unique bloodsucker. The first Bloodhunt Battle Pass goes live on April 29th for 950 Tokens ($10) and offers over 85 cosmetics to earn. For more details, head here.

Both PC and PlayStation 5 players will be able to play with each other, with cross-play being supported across both platforms. On thePS5, players will also be able to buy the Founders’ Ultimate Edition, which will include an exclusive epic Samurai mask, two exclusive killer outfits, hundreds of outfits, and 1000 Tokens to spend in-game.

Additionally, the PlayStation 5 version comes with exclusive features, such as Tempest 3D audio technology support, and two image modes, with Quality mode running in 4K at 30 FPS, and Performance mode running in 1440p at 60 FPS. Support for the DualSense’s features is also confirmed.

“After a successful Early Access period, Sharkmob has been implementing feedback from the game’s community and we can’t wait to show fans how the game has progressed,” the game’s producer David Sirland said in a press release. “We’re delighted to be bringing the game to a new audience of PlayStation 5 players and are excited to be launching the full game this April in all its glory.”

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt will be free-to-play on both platforms.

The trailer showcases various facets of the gameplay experience- climbing buildings and jumping across rooftops to get from one place to the other, shooting and melee combat, customization, and much more. Of course, as vampires, players will also have access to supernatural powers, which can be used in battle against other players to gain an advantage.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt is already available on PC via Steam Early Access, although it is supposed to be coming out of Early Access in Spring next year, along with a PS5 release.

On the single player side of the World of Darkness universe, fans have been waiting for more information on the highly-anticipated Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 as well, which, according to Paradox Interactive, is “going well” – although who exactly is developing the game remains unknown at this point.