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(Image credit: Gearbox Software)

When it comes to Hopoo, though, it looks like the studio’s journey is coming to a close. As announced on the Hopoo’sTwitter, both the studio’s founders, as well as “many other talented members”, are going to be “working on game development directly” at Valve, now.
The threadcontinues: “We’re incredibly grateful to Valve for their partnerships in the last decade, and are excited to continue working on their awesome titles.” This shift in direction comes with a sacrifice, though: “this does mean that we are stopping production on our unannounced game, ‘Snail’.” Drummond also commented on the move, viaquote tweet: “I work at Valve now”. ‘nuff said.
I’ve got some mixed feelings on this, myself. I’ve enjoyed basically every Hopoo Games title I’ve played—so to know there probably won’t be any more originals from the studio, even if the bulk of its developers are working at Valve now, does kinda sting.
A similar situation happened with the former Firewatch developers Campo Santo, who were brought into the Valve fold in 2018—which causedIn the Valley of the Gods, a game announced seven years ago, to linger in development purgatory. It’s even currently got aplaceholder date of December 2029 on Steam, so I think we’re gonna be waiting a while, bare minimum.
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On the other hand, considering what Valve’s doing with Deadlock at the moment (it’s very, very good) bringing on Hopoo to potentially work on that project—though it’s unclear where exactly they’ll be placed—seems like a win for everyone. To know therewasa game in development that’s now being cancelled also sucks, but Snail was never announced—so it’s hard to mourn what you never knew.
Besides, while I’ve seen some memes about how ‘Valve doesn’t release games’ in response, I’m not sure if that really applies anymore. We’ve had Dota: Underlords, Half Life: Alyx, Counter-Strike 2, and now Deadlock in four years. The slumbering studio’s output is revving up once more and I, for one, am keen to see what bringing Hopoo into the fold does for that.
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