The debut game from V1 Interactive, the studio headed by Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto, is a sci-fi first-person shooter called Disintegration. Lehto previously worked on games such as the pre-343 Industries Halo titles.
Lehto began working at Bungie in 1997 as art director, where he co-created the concept for Halo: Combat Evolved, leading to Microsoft’s acquisition of the studio. He worked as art director for Halo 2 and Halo 3 after that, and as an art director consultant on Halo: ODST. He then took the role of creative director for Halo: Reach. After Reach, he worked at Bungie on a new title until he left the company in 2012. Information on Lehto’s LinkedIn does not specify what this other game was, though a pinned tweet on Lehto’s Twitter account lists the original Destiny among the titles he’s worked on. After leaving Bungie, Lehto formed the independent studio V1 Interactive, a “smaller, agile studio” focused on developing “high quality small games.”
Lehto revealed Disintegration on Twitter, along with a link to the game’s website. We don’t know much about the game besides the fact that it’s a sci-fi shooter, but the teaser trailer below shows what appears to be some kind of starfighter or in-atmosphere flying vehicle. The design of the ship brings to mind Halo’s various vehicles and Destiny’s Jumpships, which can perhaps be attributed to Lehto’s previous work related to those games’ art direction. Adding to the similarities between these games is the trailer’s music, which brings to mind the epic orchestral soundtracks of Halo and Destiny.
Disintegration will be published by Private Division, a publishing label under Take-Two Interactive which partnered with V1 Interactive in December 2017. Private Division has previously published Kerbal Space Program and is publishing upcoming games such as Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey and Obsidian’s space RPG The Outer Worlds.
The full reveal for Disintegration will take place at Gamescom 2019 during the Opening Night Live show on August 19. It’s not clear what exactly V1 Interactive will reveal there, but it would be reasonable to assume a longer trailer and perhaps some gameplay - although, if Gamescom follows E3 2019’s trend of showing little gameplay for new game reveals, we might not get much. To be fair, games like Cyberpunk 2077 are scheduled for lengthy gameplay reveals at Gamescom this year.
According to Private Division, Disintegration will launch sometime between April 1, 2020 and the end of that calendar year.
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Source: Marcus Lehto/Twitter
