ProbablyMonsters unveils Hidden Grove

gamesindustry.biz:

ProbablyMonsters has had a long and eventful life for a company that has yet to ship a game.

First established by former Bungie CEO Harold Ryan in 2016 and announced to the world in 2019, the AAA game development outfit has launched three studios (Cauldron, Firewalk, and Battle Barge), sold one (Firewalk, to publishing partner Sony), canceled the debut project of another (Cauldron), and today announced another studio that is now hiring: Hidden Grove.

Given the widespread contractions the industry has seen in the past year and ProbablyMonsters' own willingness to part ways with Firewalk, it's interesting to see the company seemingly return to growing its development footprint, but Ryan tells GamesIndustry.biz it's far from unexpected.

"It's always been our plan to expand and grow strategically since our beginnings here at ProbablyMonsters," Ryan says. "We're certainly not immune to the ups and downs of the industry, but we have continued to evaluate and evolve our business and we make investments where we see an opportunity.

"We identified early on, which is why we formed ProbablyMonsters in 2016, that the industry needed a different way to support game developers and new IP to sustain the needs of gamers. It is our mission to unite, guide and empower developers who are aligned with our vision to make the industry a better place and create amazing games."

Ryan adds that having the ProbablyMonsters central services team supporting the multiple development studios under the company's umbrella allows them to be more than the sum of their parts.

Besides, much like ProbablyMonsters itself, Hidden Grove was around for a while before it made itself known. Hidden Grove general manager Chris Opdahl left Bungie to reunite with Ryan and start up the development team almost four years ago.

"He kept the team small and has grown it slowly, both to build and maintain the culture of how we do things differently at ProbablyMonsters, but also to take the time to explore new ideas and try new