Generation Zero Celebrates Five Years Thanks To A "Sustainable Work Environment," Studio Says
Mark Delaney
3/25/2024
Generation Zero, the co-op shooter that pits kids in the 1980s against threatening machines that have overtaken a vast Swedish wilderness, is celebrating its fifth anniversary in 2024. The game's earliest days were shaky at best with pre-release hype seeming let down by the game's subpar launch, but the independent team at Systemic Reaction Group has survived not just that rough start, but also a pandemic and an industry that demands multiplayer games either dominate the zeitgeist or die trying.I reviewed Gen Zero way back in 2019, and I've played it several times since I gave it a middling score myself, always hoping it would reach the obvious potential it had. With the studio having successfully turned the game around in a way most teams like it don't get a chance to do--its Steam page now features "Mostly Positive" reviews both recently and all-time--I wanted to find out exactly how that happened. How does a studio, especially an independent studio, survive those years of wanting to improve the game while understanding it's probably not going to compete with the major timesinks already swallowing up massive slices of the multiplayer timeshare pie?For that, I spoke to lead game director Ash McAllan and studio creative director Emil Krafting to walk me through not just how the team has survived to celebrate the game's fifth anniversary, but also to look ahead at what's to come for the survival game. You can read our full chat below alongside an exclusive fifth-anniversary trailer seen above.Continue Reading at GameSpot...
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