UK-based Splash Damage has, up until this week, been known for its hard core first person shooter games such as Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and most recently the 2011 shooter Brink. This week, Splash Damage revealed its plans to move into development of free-to-play games.
The first game under their new business plan is called RAD Soldiers, a multiplayer turn-based strategy action game that's being made for iOS devices, although Rock Paper Shotgun reveals that the company might release the game for the PC platform as well. RAD Soldiers is due for release in June. It's being published by a new company that Splash Damage has formed called WarChest which has also been set up to publish games from third parties.
Gamasutra reports that Splash Damage has two more free-to-play but unnamed games in development, including one for the PC that's due out later this year. The other game is made for for consoles and is due out in 2013. The company has also founded another subsidiary, Fireteam, that will handle online services for games. Fireteam has already signed a deal with a major, but unannounced, publisher.
Don't look for Facebook games to be made by Splash Damage. The company's founder Paul Wedgewood states, "Facebook gaming requires you to use somebody else's platform and you don't have that level of independence compared to if you're doing it yourself."
