UPDATE: Activision has clarified that Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark is in fact targeting a June release to coincide with the movie release of Transformers: Age of Extinction. It aims to tie the Michael Bay movie universe into the same continuity as High Moon Studios’ previous and well-received Transformers: Cybertron games. That’s quite the aspiration!
Original story follows:
After an initial leak of the game’s title, publisher, Activision has now confirmed that Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark is indeed real, also releasing a debut trailer.
The trailer reveals that the game will take place on Earth, and appears to take heavy inspiration from the design direction of the Michael Bay-directed Transformers movies. Despite this however, Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark is not a movie tie-in, and doesn’t appear to be planned for release alongside this June’s Transformers: Age of Extinction.
Also of interest is that Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark appears to allow you to play as either the good-natured Autobots or the world-conquering Decepticons, as Optimus Prime voice actor, Peter Cullen narrates about opposing forces. An array of robots on both sides are shown in a montage of combat, exploration and, naturally, transforming.
Despite the positive reception to their Cybertron-set Transformers games, High Moon Studios, who most recently made Deadpool for Marvel (a game that’s currently unavailable digitally and largely out of stock at retail after just a few months because Marvel’s former game deal with Activision has now lapsed), will not be developing this new game. Instead, the console and PC versions will be developed by Edge of Reality, best known for working with BioWare on porting the original Mass Effect to PlayStation 3, and developing the console versions of Dragon Age: Origins.
Shantae and Mighty Switch Force! developer, WayForward will be handling the lone handheld port for 3DS.
While details are few, Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark appears to be a large and ambitious Transformers game experience that fans should hopefully be satisfied with. Hopefully the strong final products of Transformers: War for Cybertron and Transformers: Fall of Cybertron will keep the positive momentum going for the series in the gaming space as well.
Transformers: Rise of the Dark Spark will release sometime this year, but has no specific launch window. It will be released for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and 3DS.
Keep rolling back to Eggplante for updates on the game, and the Transformers brand at large.