video games

World of Warcraft's lead designer finally revealed what his new studio has been working on for more than six years

The former lead designer of WoW has revealed his new game titled Arkheron. It's supposed to be so unique that it's hard to even describe.

Martin Bukowski

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Source: Bonfire Studios

In 2016, the former lead designer of World of Warcraft, Rob Pardo, announced the founding of Bonfire Studios. Industry veterans who previously worked at Blizzard, along with Min Kim, the former CEO of Nexon's American branch, have joined the studio's ranks. More than eight years have passed since that moment, and only now have the developers revealed their first project, titled Arkheron, which is a team PvP game.

New game from the developer of WoW

In a conversation with GamesBeat, Pardo said that the title has been in development since 2018, but its production has been slowed down, among other things, by the Covid-19 pandemic. Private tests started in 2024, and they will be expanded to include new people in the coming months. Although the game is already advanced enough to reveal its existence, unfortunately not too many details have been shared.

We know that Arkheron will offer a top-down view, similar to what is seen in hack-and-slash games, and the action will take place in a dark fantasy universe. The title doesn't have a deep plot due to its focus on PvP gameplay, however, it doesn't lack an extensive world and lore, which can be compared to, for instance, League of Legends. Pardo, however, notes that he hasn't yet found a good way to properly present the image of the game, suggesting that it will be an unusual mix of genres.

It’s in this wonderful place where it has a lot of familiar concepts from other genres, but the core of the game is really unique and the combat is really unique. It’s created a lot of challenges for us to actually explain it well to people. Because people always get the wrong impression. They get a picture of the wrong game.

He stated that the only way to truly know and understand his game is to play it. When asked about the gameplay, he mentioned that it won't be shown yet, but he did share some general details about it.

It’s very fast-paced and isn’t turn-based or anything like that. It has its own unique combat style. It's not really a shooter. It’s not point-and-click like Diablo. We hopefully have made it playable on the controller from the beginning. So it’s actually very conducive to controller play.

This isn't too much information, but for now it will have to be enough for us. Arkheron doesn't yet have a release date, but it is heading for current-generation consoles and PC. You can sign up for the tests on the official website. At the moment they are limited only to North America, but within a year they will be expanded to other regions.

  1. Bonfire Studios - official website

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Martin Bukowski

Author: Martin Bukowski

Graduate of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Gdańsk University of Technology, who decided to dedicate his life to video games. In his childhood, he would get lost in the Gothic's Valley of Mines and "grind for gold" in League of Legends. Twenty years later, games still entertain him just as much. Today, he considers the Persona series and soulslike titles from From Software as his favorite games. He avoids consoles, and a special place in his heart is reserved for PC. In his spare time, he works as a translator, is creating his first game, or spends time watching movies and series (mainly animated ones).

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