SAN FRANCISCO, June 9  —  What to expect from Devolver Digital? After the irreverent video game label’s E3 debut in 2017, a festival of acidic satire and comically gross dismemberments, the publisher says it’s bringing actual, factual game announcements for 2018.

After the prepared and gleeful chaos of Devolver’s 2017 showcase, there are few givens for the publisher’s 2018 return.

Now it knows that people are watching and Devolver is promising “real, actual game reveals” as well as what it calls “technological innovations from Devolver Labs,” the fictitious division whose games industry futurology drove 2017’s spoof.

Action title Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass is one of those games, already flagged for E3 in an April reveal trailer.

Devolver’s acknowledged roster of upcoming games includes Eitr, an action role-playing game with Nordic themes, Sometimes Always Monsters, sequel to cross-country journey Always Sometimes Monsters made famous for its protagonist’s mental health issues, jazz violence gorilla rampage “Ape Out,” and the deceivingly playful dystopian adventure Pikuniku.

Being readied for an Early Access launch — it’ll still be under heavy development while paying players can get to grips with it — is Scum, an open-world action title set in an expansive maximum security prison facility. That, too, is supposed to be heading for 2018 release; freeform multiplayer crime and espionage caper “Sub Rosa” could become one of E3’s surprise hits should it make it into the Devolver showcase.

More speculatively, the team behind Shadow Warrior 2 has spent two years without releasing a new game and the 2016 punchy, slashy ninja assassin sequel was very well received, so perhaps it’s time for a reveal from them.

Finally, and what some of Devolver’s most enthusiastic fans have been asking for, is a third Hotline Miami.

The searing indie hit, which debuted in 2012, was wildly successful and marked the start of a new era for Devolver. Given the three-year development of 2015’s direct sequel, fans are pumped for any news of a Hotline Miami 3.

Devolver Digital
Date: June 10, 11pm PDT
International: June 11, 2am EDT, 6am UTC, 7am UK, 8am Central Europe and South Africa, 11.30am India, 2pm Singapore, Malaysia, and China, Beijing, 3pm Japan and South Korea, and 4pm Sydney, Australia.
Watch live via twitch.tv/twitch. — AFP-Relaxnews