In what might be the most unlikely business partnership ever, PopCap Games has 2-Upped with American McGee’s Spicy Horse studio, with a $3 million investment from Singapore’s Vickers Venture Partners.
American’s team is apparently signed onto a 3D online version of one of PopCap’s previous catalogue franchises, although exactly which one that is remains a mystery. Not that there are that many possible candidates, although American McGee’s Bookworm Adventures in Hell sounds kind of awesome, doesn’t it?
McGee had previously said that once development on Alice: Madness Returns finished up, he intends to move into the free-to-play zone.
“The sense is that while a lot of social games have built their empires on 2D, there will be a moment where the genre has to shift into 3D, and we want to start that process now,” he tells Gamasutra.
“The reason I originally came to China is that I wanted to get into that new model – I wanted to get away from console game production and retail, disc-based sales.”
Whatever it is they’re working on, it’s “free-to-play, it will launch initially in Asia, it’s multiplayer, and it’s microtransaction-driven”.
