4A Games is a Ukranian-Maltese video game development studio. It was formed in Kiev, though its HQ was moved to a town in Malta (however the Kievan studio remains in use).
History
The company was formed in Kiev, Ukraine and founded by people who split off from GSC Game World a year before the release of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, in particular, Oles Shiskovtsov and Aleksandr Maksimchuk, the programmers who worked on the development of the X-Ray engine used in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series. They utilised the tools and knowledge gained from the experience to build their signature 4A Engine.
The 4A Engine was created for game creation on next-gen consoles and high-end PCs, and the company was granted a certificate from the State Department of Intellectual Property of Ukraine to the property rights of the program on 28th November, 2006. The creation of the 4A Engine lead to the development of their cult game Metro 2033 and its sequel, Metro: Last Light. On 9th August 2013, there were reports of a planned underwater shooter for THQ, but when the publisher went bankrupt, the game was canned.
Work cotinued on Arktika.1 (a VR game). After opening their new HQ in Malta, 4A Games said that the "studio continues to work on unannounced titles within the Metro universe", most likely teasing to the continuing of the Metro Series. This was later revealed to be Metro Exodus, a new instalment in the popular Metro Series for the PC, PS4, and X-ONE.
Some of the known current and former employees of 4A Games include: Andriy Prokhorov, Sergei Karmalsky, Dmytro Zenin, Vlad Tkach, Oleg Gamov, Ilya Tolmachev, Alexander Sitak, Maryna Chemerys, Oleksandr Pavlenko, Anastasiia Tkach, Oleg Koreyba, Dmytro Butenko, and Oleksandr Kryvolapov.
Titles
- Metro 2033 (Developer)
- Metro Last Light (Writer & Developer)
- Metro Redux (Developer)
- Arktika.1 (Developer)
- Metro Exodus (Developer)
Trivia
- In the early days of the company only around 20 people were employed at its first Kiev office. The team has since grown by over 100 individuals.
- The 4A Offices appear in the concept art for Metro: Last Light. The logo is at the top of the building that looks very similar to the building where Bourbon is found in Dead City. Whether or not the building is in the full game remains to be seen.
- Like many companies in the game development industry the studio is known among workers for talented designers, unreasonable crunch times, unpaid overtime, and poor middle management. It has an above average rating on Glassdoor.
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