Renowned CRPG studio Owlcat moves into publishing

Fans of CRPGs who haven’t just discovered the genre with the release of Baldur’s Gate 3 have probably played at least one title made by Owlcat Games, the developer behind works such as Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader. 

Simply making these games is no longer enough for the company, it seems like: Owlcat stated that it’s entering the publishing business – and it’s already signed two projects.

Owlcat will publish Rue Valley by Serbian developer Emotion Spark Studio and Shadow of the Road by Polish developer Another Angle Games. Both were handpicked by the newly-minted publisher from more than 50 potential partners.

Rue Valley is a short, narrative RPG about a man trapped in a time loop during therapy. He must confront his mental challenges and delve deeper into the mysterious anomaly to break free and uncover its secrets.

Shadow of the Road is an isometric RPG set in feudal Japan – well, an alt-history version of it. It features turn-based tactical combat, a story about samurai and honor, a world filled with magical yokai and dangerous steampunk tech, and some horror elements.

“We would like to work with teams that share our passion for telling captivating stories through narrative-driven games,” explained Andrey Tsvetkov, Owlcat’s head of publishing. “These might not fall entirely into the RPG genre, but they will definitely have a solid focus on story, characters, and worldbuilding. We have already walked the path of creating our dream game, and now we have the expertise and resources to guide other teams to the games of their dreams as well.”

Owlcat plans on revealing more information on both signed projects at Gamescom 2024. 

In addition to its own publishing ventures, Owlcat recently acquired its former partner META Publishing, with which it worked on Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous – more news on that label’s upcoming games are expected in Cologne as well.

Owlcat’s own next release will be Void Shadows, the first DLC for Rogue Trader.