Video game retailer GameStop and game developer Insomniac have teamed up to release Song of the Deep , the mysterious game that Insomniac teased earlier this week. Song of the Deep also marks GameStop’s first foray into the world of video game publishing.
Song of the Deep is about Merryn, a young Irish girl in search of her father who was lost at sea. Merryn builds a small submarine to search the depths of the ocean for him. Song of the Deep is said to be a Metroid-vania style game, with Merryn unlocking different upgrades to her submarine along the way.
Interestingly enough, Insomniac chose to go with GameStop to publish Song of the Deep. This is the first time that GameStop has served as a publisher, and will be using their retail location as an extra incentive. The only place you will be able to get physical copies of Song of the Deep will be through the retailer.
Before you get alarmed that GameStop is jumping into the publishing business, this seems to be very much a trial run type situation. “ I think this is a first opportunity to do this and right now we're fully focused on Song of the Deep and looking at how this works and what the results are,” said Mark Stanley to Gamesindustry.biz . Stanley is the senior vice president of marketing and sales at GameStop. “And then we'll sit back and see what we did right and did wrong and look at potential future opportunities."
“Traditionally what we do with games from various publishers is we piggyback on their marketing and the plans that they have, and we try to leverage our GameStop platform to augment that, but in this case we're going to really blend the entire structure for marketing around this game from soup to nuts," Stanley said.
Really, GameStop is just going to act as a marketing team, leaving the development of Song of the Deep to Insomniac. “They've [GameStop] been incredibly supportive and enthusiastic about the content but will be the first ones to tell you that they're not game developers and they're not asking us to change the game,” said Ted Price, the head of Insomniac, to Gamesindustry.biz. “This is Insomniac's vision and they've been supportive of it all along.
Song of the Deep will be available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC as a digital download. It will also be available as a physical disc in GameStop stores. Both versions will retail for $14.99, and are expected to release in Q2 of 2016.
So what do you think? Are you interested in playing Song of the Deep? Are you curious to see where GameStop is headed in the publishing business? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
