SPECIAL FORCES Hell Let Loose is not a top-tier shooter then, but given that a community of six million surround it and those player numbers aren’t showing any decline, it’s perhaps no surprise that Team17 announced in January that it had decided to purchase the IP for £46 million. However, while the numbers were healthy and stable and the game clearly liked, what sold Team17 on adding Hell Let Loose to it’s IP cabinet (alongside Worms and Golf With Your Friends), was the ambition that Black Matter’s CEO, Max Rea, had maintained for the game, not just during five years of development, but more recently when pondering its long-term future. “He talked to us about his vision for Hell Let Loose,
“We feel like the acquisition of this IP puts a new marker out for Team17 in terms of our ambition”
Michael Pattison, CEO at Team17
the competition thanks to its large-scale battles, attempted realism, and an unapologetic focus on teamwork. Let it be known that if yours truly had more like-minded friends (and fewer children), he might have played it a lot more than he has. As accomplished a game as it is, however, Hell Let
Loose is not Call of Duty, as evidenced by the fact that - according to Steamcharts, Steamspy et al - it rarely breaks more than 10,000 consecutive PC players. As these words fall across the page, there are currently 6,994 people playing the game on Steam, far less that are enjoying the likes of Valheim (18,007) or the number one game CS:GO (614,407) - although curiously a fair few more than are playing the latest Battlefield (6,776).
but also talked very eloquently about what was going on in the FPS genre,” recalls Team17 CEO Michael Pattison about his Black Matter counterpart. “What we really liked was his ambition, and that he saw an opportunity that perhaps some of these other franchises weren’t supporting and a community out there that was desperate for something just a little bit different. Not just from a World War Two perspective, but in the way that the game requires teamwork and leadership. I’m an old marketeer, so finding a niche amongst the competition is really important. And it felt like he had identified a really good niche that we could go after.”
Michael Pattison, CEO Team17
Pattison, who joined Team17 just as the console
editions of Hell Let Loose were being unleashed, was just as impressed by the effort and skill that had gone into the game. “The undertaking was against all odds,” he says. “I know, having worked with Activision and DICE at EA, the size of the teams that they have. This was a relatively small team punching way, way, above their weight and that really excited us.”
THE HOME FRONT In taking over the long-term development and administration of Hell Let Loose, the size of the team
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