Former Escape From Tarkov dev says "no amount of millions of dollars can save a weak product"

The shooter space is in a weird place right now. As studios and publishers have scrambled to cash in on the live-service boom, we've been inundated with various multiplayer games that have had soaring highs and devastating lows. As players, it's never been easier to sort the wheat from the chaff, but for developers, cutting through the noise has become a major headache. When Nomion Games co-head Dmitri Ogorodnikov split from Escape From Tarkov maker Battlestate Games to head up the new studio, he knew that its first game, Rush is Real, couldn't follow in the steps of commercial failures like Concord and Highguard. Speaking to PCGamesN, Ogorodnikov explains that Nomion's in-the-works debut cannot hit the same stumbling blocks.

"Looking at cases like Concord and many others, respecting the complexity of the task is crucial," Ogorodnikov begins. "Creating a shooter - or any game - that truly breaks through today is a statistical anomaly. Sorry for the drama, but we realize we're entering an arena where the bones of dominant giants mix with the wreckage of ambitious newcomers. No amount of millions of dollars marketing can save a weak product; there are plenty of examples."

Concord is certainly the most high-profile example of this. Firewalk's hero shooter brought with it a bland roster of characters, born out of tired old tropes. While its cutscenes added a semblance of substance, it ultimately fell flat. While some at the time put it down to the subgenre being out of favor, Marvel Rivals came along just months later and proved that theory wrong. Highguard, meanwhile, launched with a confused remit, and its myriad inconsistencies brought confusion.

"There are many traps," the former Escape From Tarkov PR manager continues. "We don't have the illusion of controlling the market. Big studios often try to calculate success with formulas but end up losing the soul of the game, delivering sterile products without character. They also rely too much on hype trains and inertia, treating new projects like cash cows."

Ogorodnikov says he has a different plan. "Our way to avoid this is first to admit we don't control the market but must fully control the quality of the gameplay moments and the ideas we put into the game and want to showcase. We add to this our experience working on EFT and other major projects, plus the accumulated player knowledge. The team is great, with a clear understanding of its strengths, especially in shooter development."

While Rush is Real is still very much in prototyping, Ogorodnikov has already boldly claimed that it won't be just another shooter. Promising an experience "where risk and pressure are pushed to the absolute," he talks a big game. The major question is how Nomion plans to ensure Rush is Real can avoid the pitfall of genericism. Ogorodnikov believes that the answer lies in staying true to course.

"By 'not just another,' I mean we're not building a killer of anything or blindly copying," he says. "We don't promise a revolution or a game for everyone, and we don't dilute our focus. We're not assembling a Frankenstein from random parts, as often happens by inertia in large companies. What matters most to us is to implement ideas with quality - not averaged by formula, but radically and rationally. Right now, we're making the most of the time we have. Very soon, we'll show exactly what we're preparing there."

Ogorodnikov's rationale is certainly sound. Marathon may not be doing Arc Raiders' mega numbers, but its slick presentation and core focus on delivering Bungie's best-in-class gunplay makes it an incredibly strong extraction offering. Further afield, 2025 Game of the Year Clair Obscur Expedition 33 didn't reinvent the wheel, but provided a compelling narrative and an incredible RPG world for us all to explore. These are games that only Bungie and Sandfall Interactive could have made, and that strength of identity will be crucial if Rush is Real is to make a splash when it eventually reaches our screens.