Bloober Team

Bloober Team is a developer and publisher.

Bloober Team Webpage, Facebook

Bloober Team is an independent Polish video game development studio based in Krakow. Established in 2008, the company originally worked on commissioned projects but later moved toward developing its own games. Bloober Team's titles are released on PC, consoles, and handheld devices.

The history of Bloober Team

The company's history began in 2008, when it was founded by Piotr Babieno and Piotr Bielatowicz. In its early years, the team concentrated on creating custom games. Their first game, HISTORY: Egypt - Engineering an Empire, came out in 2010 for PSP, Nintendo DS, and PC. Later that year, they launched three more games - Hospital Havoc for Nintendo DS, plus Music Master: Chopin - Rock and Music Master: Chopin - Classic on PC.

A-Men and BRAWL - Bloober Team's breakthrough games

The first major breakthrough for the team occurred in 2012. That's when A-Men came out - a puzzle-arcade game clearly inspired by the classic Lemmings series. A-Men was the first indie game to launch with the PlayStation Vita and was later brought to PS3 and PC. The game received mixed reviews and modest interest from players. However, combined profits from sales and the studio's work on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita versions of Alien Breed (2013) provided the funding for their next title. Later that year, the studio released Deathmatch Village for PS3 and PS Vita - a mix of strategy, arcade, and MOBA gameplay. That year, the team returned to the A-Men series with a sequel, A-Men 2, which did not appear on PC until 2015.

Their next game came out together with the PlayStation 4 launch. However, Basement Crawl was heavily criticized by both players and reviewers. The team decided to rework and improve the game, and within a year, they launched it again as BRAWL. The game is an original action title inspired by classic series such as Bomberman and Spy vs. Spy. The developers' changes and enhancements led to a notable increase in the game's ratings.

In 2014, the studio announced Scopophobia, an arcade title featuring stealth mechanics and set in 19th-century London. Players would play as children trying to escape the deadly gaze of a basilisk stalking the city streets. The project never came to life - the team decided to move on and work on other games instead.

A shift to horror

Layers of Fear and Observer

The experience they gained enabled the developers to expand their creative capabilities. The studio's new era began with Layers of Fear, which came out in 2016 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It's a first-person horror adventure game. Inspired by 19th-century painting and architecture, the game cast players as a mentally unstable artist striving to complete his last masterpiece. The game had a dark, trippy vibe, with its visuals and sound design doing much of the heavy lifting.

The game's success encouraged the developers to release an official expansion, Inheritance, and to start developing their next project. Observer is another horror game developed by the studio. Set in a cyberpunk environment, the game features a police officer who can hack people's minds.Observer was released for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in August 2017, with a Nintendo Switch version following in February 2019. In the meantime, Bloober Team's platform has also featured releases like BRAWL and Layers of Fear (Legacy version).

In 2017, the studio founded a new division, Feardemic, focused on developing and publishing emotionally driven titles, particularly psychological horror games. The first result of the collaboration between the two teams was 2084, a cyberpunk-themed shooter released in Early Access on Steam in December 2018. In October 2018, the Krakow-based studio announced its next project. Layers of Fear 2, which shifted its main theme from painting - familiar from its predecessor - to cinema. The game was released for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on May 28th, 2019. The game didn't sell well - just fifty thousand copies were sold in its first week.

Blair Witch

Despite the game's poor sales, Bloober Team announced its next project at E3 2019, during Microsoft's conference. It's a survival horror game called Blair Witch, inspired by the iconic horror movie series. The main character, Ellis, travels to the Black Hills Forest, believed to be haunted by the Blair Witch, in order to find a missing boy. The story told in the game is actually part of the official franchise canon. Initially planned for PC and Xbox One, Blair Witch was set to debut on August 30th, 2019 In April 2020, Bloober Team announced Observer: System Redux - a revamped and expanded take on the 2017 game Observer. Alongside graphical enhancements, the developers expanded the game's content by adding entirely new narrative elements. The game was planned for release on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in the fourth quarter of 2020.

The Medium

In May 2020, Bloober Team unveiled their next project, The Medium. The origins of the project date back to 2012, but the technology available at the time made bringing its ambitious concept to life impossible. The gameplay in The Medium unfolds simultaneously across two realms: the physical world and the spirit world. The title features Weronika Rosati and Marcin Dorocinski, who provided their likenesses for the main characters. The music was composed by Arkadiusz Reikowski and Akira Yamaoka, known for the Silent Hill franchise. The title was scheduled to debut in late 2020 on PC and Xbox Series X.

Back in June 2020, rumors began circulating that Bloober Team might be getting ready for a merger or acquisition by another company. Bankier reported that the shortlist included firms from the United States, Poland, and the United Kingdom. Speculation suggested that Microsoft, with which the Krakow-based company had a successful partnership, was a potential acquirer of Bloober.

In early November 2020, Bloober Team announced that the release of The Medium had been delayed from December 10th to January 28th. The delay was mainly because of the pandemic in Poland. The timing of other major releases, most notably Cyberpunk 2077, also influenced the decision to postpone.

Reviews published the day before the release of The Medium were mixed. Reviews ranged from 9/10 (ours included) to 4/10. Metacritic reported average scores of 75/100 for the PC version and 72/100 for the Xbox Series X/S version. By January 29th, it was clear that The Medium had become a commercial hit. The studio reported that all production and marketing expenses were recovered within a single day of the game's release. The team in Krakow could finally breathe easy and start on their next big project. The developers' job posting revealed that their next horror game would also have combat. On September 3rd, a little over six months after it first came out, The Medium finally arrived on PlayStation 5.

In late March 2021, Bloober Team confirmed that it would continue operating independently. They called off talks with potential investors to make sure they didn't "lose overarching strategic goals".

Collaboration with Konami

As Bloober Team became known for horror games, more and more players have seen them as a possible developer for the next Silent Hill game. In February 2021, the developers disclosed that they had been collaborating with a "very well-known game publisher" on "another horror franchise" for more than a year. In an interview, Akira Yamaoka added to the controversy by revealing that he was working on a game "fans hope to hear about". The interview was deleted shortly thereafter.

Finally, in June 2021, Bloober Team confirmed they had partnered with Konami to work together on content development, share knowledge, and make the most of each studio's top skills. Back then, it seemed almost a given that Bloober Team's next game would be a new Silent Hill. However, any news about what came from Bloober Team's collaboration with Konami had to wait. In fall 2021, a teaser revealed that the Krakow-based studio was developing the third installment of the Layers of Fear series. In June 2022, the project was unveiled in full as Layers of Fear, the third entry in the series, intended to link the first two games while adding new storylines and extra content. The game was co-developed with Anshar Studios, another development team based in Poland. In February 2023, the creators changed the title of their project, renaming it… Layers of Fear.

Silent Hill 2 Remake (and more)

Finally, in October 2022, Silent Hill fans got to see what Bloober Team and Konami had been working on together. The project was a complete remake of Silent Hill 2, planned for release on PC and PlayStation 5. The game was designed to differentiate itself from the original through fully refreshed graphics and mechanics updated to contemporary standards. The original creators supervised the project and, while monitoring the Krakow-based team, praised their talent and adherence to the source material.

In December 2022, Bloober Team disclosed that it was developing another, unannounced project, codenamed Project C, with Private Division slated to publish and finance the survival horror title. In April 2024, Project R was added to Bloober Team's portfolio of projects, with Skybound Games slated to serve as its publisher.

On May 30th, 2024, it was reported that Private Division had terminated its partnership with the Krakow-based studio. Even so, development on Project C was set to go on, and the developers were considering options like finding a new publisher or releasing it themselves. One day later, Silent Hill 2 received an official release date. It was scheduled for release on PlayStation 5 and PC on October 8th, 2024.

In July, it was revealed that Bloober Team had partnered with Viacom International to produce a project based on a license from the company. The project was scheduled for release under the Broken Mirror Games label, which Bloober Team established in February 2024 for second-party initiatives.

Developers from Bloober Team and Konami managed to complete the project by the deadline. Silent Hill 2 launched to widespread acclaim from players, garnering "overwhelmingly positive" reviews on Steam, and received strong ratings from industry critics, with Metacritic scores averaging 86-87/100 across platforms. On launch day, the game achieved significant popularity, drawing more than 23,500 concurrent players on Steam.

About three weeks before it came out, we learned that Silent Hill 2 would only be available on PC and PlayStation 5 until at least October 10th, 2025.

Cronos: The New Dawn and other projects

Shortly after, on October 17th, 2024, Bloober Team announced its plans for the future, including the sci-fi survival horror Cronos: The New Dawn. The game, built around a time-travel concept, was intended to let players experience both a post-apocalyptic reality and Poland during the 1980s. The release was planned for 2025.

In December 2024, news broke that the team had secured the publishing rights to the still-unknown Project R. The game would carry the Skybound Games brand, and the owner agreed to receive a portion of the revenue as payment. Project R was scheduled for release under the Broken Mirror Games label.

In late February 2025, Bloober Team and Konami announced that they would extend their collaboration with a new project, codenamed Project G. The project was scheduled for release on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S, under one of the publisher's established brands.

March 2025 brought reports of a new collaboration undertaken by Bloober Team. The company signed an agreement with Netflix, leading to the development of the mysterious Project N, with Netflix assuming the roles of publisher and exclusive rights holder.