Dead Island 2 In for an Earthquake; Big Changes Coming
Plaion intends to merge its Deep Silver, Prime Matter and Ravenscourt divisions and start publishing games under its own banner.
The publisher of, among others, Dead Island 2, Deep Silver, will cease to exist as an independent entity in the future.
- Deep Silver, Prime Matter and Ravenscourt are three publishers owned by Plaion (formerly known as Koch Media).
- According to new reports Plaion intends to close these three divisions and start publishing their games under its own banner.
- Layoffs are planned, but very modest ones - Plaion currently employs about 2,000 people, and only 5-6 of them will have to say goodbye to their jobs.
- Plaion wants to focus in the future on releasing fewer, but higher quality productions.
- The change will not take place suddenly. Games with Deep Silver, Prime Matter and Ravenscourt logos will be released even for a few more years.
- Plaion also owns Milestone and Vertigo Games. Both are publishing games under their own banner, and for now there is no indication that this is about to change.
- It is worth mentioning that Plaion itself is part of the Embracer group.
Koch Media created the Deep Silver brand in 2002. It is the publisher of the company's biggest hits, such as the Saints Row, Metro and Dead Island series. Ravenscourt, on the other hand, was established in 2014 - initially it was a brand under which simulations were released, and later its activities were expanded to indie games (e.g. Road 96 or Floodland) and family-oriented (e.g., the Let's Sing series) titles.
The newest publisher of the three is Prime Matter, which was established in 2021. It focuses on smaller "premium" titles. Under this banner, it has released such games as Scars Above, King's Bounty II or Gungrave G.O.R.E.
