Godfall Developer Counterplay Games Talks Shutdown Reports as First Trailer for Armatus Hits the Internet

Godfall developer Counterplay Games reportedly unopen down earlier this year, truthful seeing it abruptly reappear with Armatus, a full-blown roguelite shooter coming to PC and consoles successful 2026, mightiness beryllium somewhat of a shock.

A trailer, including everything from far-along cinematics and tense gameplay, materialized during today’s November 2025 Xbox Partner Preview. It’s undeniably got that Godfall flair to it, arsenic its main quality tin beryllium seen smashing and blasting their mode done a post-post-apocalyptic Paris.

It’s not often a crippled developer seemingly closes down lone to reemerge months aboriginal with a brand-new video crippled for PC, Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S. We sat down with Counterplay workplace caput and originative manager Ming Zhang to larn much astir Armatus, its roguelike gameplay, and what it’s been similar for the squad to proceed its enactment erstwhile those rumors were kicked up. You tin spot the afloat interrogation below.

IGN: To acceptable the stage, archer maine astir Armatus and this trailer we're going to see. What are players looking astatine successful this archetypal trailer?

Ming Zhang: What you spot successful this trailer is snippets of gameplay, mostly with a small spot of cinematic footage from our game. You know, it's been a fig of years successful the making, and this is Counterplay's adjacent introduction successful our emotion of visceral combat. You spot immoderate of the abilities, immoderate of the enemies, and immoderate of the chill moves that you're going to beryllium you're going to beryllium capable to do, successful this case.

What tin you archer me, successful a small much detail, astir its gameplay, its story, and, especially, the satellite it takes spot in?

Zhang: It's a third-person roguelite shooter, and successful bid to physique the world, what we did, is we took the conception of municipality fantasy, which is the grim supernatural underneath the existent world, and we took it to the nines. What happens successful the post-post-apocalypse of an municipality phantasy world? Well, you know, the existent satellite benignant of starts to interruption apart, and underneath, each the supernatural worldly starts to spill forth, right? When you deliberation about, 'What is simply a metropolis that evokes classical but besides modern, and has each the close code and tambre, adjacent un-supernatural?' It would beryllium Paris. Starting from there, we past said, 'Well, what is the benignant of quality that we would person bring here? We wanted to make the supernatural character, who was almighty and had entree to these celestial abilities that you would beryllium capable to use, but we besides wanted to instrumentality the dependable and fury of modern firearms and enactment that successful the hands of this supernatural being. So, you've got the magic and the firepower, and enactment it together.

I saw The Vanishing is what triggered this Paris to look similar this. What tin you archer maine astir that lawsuit and however it resulted successful thing similar that?

Zhang: There's thing astir the connection spoiler that is coming up (laughs), truthful you'll person to, you'll person to play and find out, but it is the pivotal event. That kicks disconnected the game.

That's wholly fair. You talked astir it a small spot there, but what other is it astir Paris that makes it the determination you spell to for this alternatively of determination other astir the world?

Zhang: Paris conscionable has unthinkable visuals, arsenic a city. Again, erstwhile you deliberation municipality fantasy, it's intolerable to debar a batch of the gothic undertones. The architecture of the metropolis already evokes the emotions that we wanted from those from the supernatural broadside of the world, truthful combining that existent satellite with the supernatural was a large portion of the mounting arsenic well.

I'm funny if you tin archer america much astir the antithetic tools players volition person astatine their disposal. Are determination antithetic guns, limb modifiers, oregon abilities? What tin we mostly look guardant to?

Zhang: This is simply a run-based game, and the primary, I say, means of combat that the subordinate has is, of course, your gun. So, you person your gun, you volition beryllium capable to sprout it, but you besides person a melee limb astatine your disposal, and you person respective locomotion kits and respective abilities that you volition beryllium capable to pick. One of the things that was truly important to america was that players bash this happening that we internally telephone 'creative look done combat,' wherever not lone is it that, you person each these astonishing tools that you tin usage successful your successful your subordinate kit, it's that you get to customize the subordinate kit that you're taking connected the tally arsenic you play each run. Just arsenic it's important to person visceral fidelity successful the gameplay, it was important for america to person the physique trade to spell on with it.

Armatus is described arsenic a third-person, roguelite shooter. Are determination immoderate circumstantial games that inspired Counterplay erstwhile crafting its gameplay?

Zhang: We person a batch of references, arsenic each crippled designers do. I deliberation you'll person to play and observe each the references, but I deliberation fans of the genre volition beryllium precise pleased with what we person to offer.

I don't cognize if possibly you'd person the aforesaid answer, then, for immoderate of the antithetic movies, books, and games oregon shows that inspired the communicative and beingness this takes spot in?

Zhang: Well, 1 of the things that we ever look for astatine Counterplay, and we've done this since the beginning, was absorbing genre blends. Without getting you cognize excessively nerdy (laughs), we ever look for combinations. We ever look for the cocoa and peanut food oregon whatnot, and truthful I deliberation a batch of the amusive successful doing that is for our players to fig it retired connected on their own, but I deliberation you'll spot the inspirations worn beauteous heavy connected our sleeves.

Roguelite, I think, is simply a word that a batch of radical hear, and they consciousness similar if they've played one, they've played them all. What does Armatus bash to basal isolated from different rogue lights and shooters?

Zhang: I thin to deliberation of roguelite arsenic a plan framework. It'd beryllium similar saying, 'If you played 1 RPG, you played them all.' The plan model is the happening that you scaffold the crippled connected apical of, but it's not the lone happening successful the game. As we emphasized, our crippled truly sings erstwhile you get into the combat. Creative look done combat is simply a halfway pillar of what we wanted to do. If you came into this crippled and you conscionable wanted to slaughter demons utilizing abilities and guns and melee, this is the crippled for you, and if you wanted to beryllium the benignant of idiosyncratic who strategically picks each azygous upgrade successful bid to deed the cleanable operation and eradicate rooms that way, this is besides the crippled for you. So that's benignant of however we deliberation astir it.

How agelong is your mean tally going to be? Is this the benignant of happening wherever you tin play speedy tally earlier bed, oregon bash you truly request to beryllium down and fastener successful for hours and hours?

Zhang: We're inactive moving connected the game, truthful I similar not to springiness a fig astatine this astatine this point, but what I volition accidental is, similar galore games that person travel earlier and after, some successful the third-person enactment genre, arsenic good arsenic the roguelite genre, the choices that you marque person a large interaction connected however overmuch you tin do.

I deliberation astatine the extremity of the trailer, you tease a brag fight. I'm not looking for specifics here, but are bosses thing players tin look guardant to successful Armatus, and what tin you archer maine astir them?

Zhang: Yeah, bosses are decidedly a portion of the game. Thank you for that. Bosses are decidedly a portion of the game, and we telephone them Greater Demons. What they correspond is, if you deliberation of the demonic incursion that's happening successful Paris, successful the post-apocalypse that we talked about, the Greater Demons are the ones that anchor. They're much coagulated than the different ones. They're bigger, they're scarier, they are figures of nightmare, and I deliberation players volition person a large clip being killed and sidesplitting them arsenic well.

So would you telephone Armatus a peculiarly hard game, then, oregon is that successful the hands of the subordinate done antithetic options?

Zhang: I deliberation that's going to beryllium up to the player, but I conjecture you'll person to hold and spot connected that one, too.

What are immoderate of the lessons the squad learned from, specifically, Godfall, due to the fact that it's truly casual to comparison these two, that the squad brought into the improvement of Armatus?

Zhang: I deliberation the biggest 1 is this: Coming retired of Godfall, 1 of the things we consistently received feedback on, and it was astir each positive, but fundamentally the large treatment constituent was the starting constituent successful the crippled felt astir primordial. Then, arsenic you unlocked moves successful the accomplishment tree, abruptly you were doing this and you were doing that. The combat successful that crippled felt similar a speech with the developers. Again, I'm paraphrasing, you know, 1 oregon 2 reviews here, but that was a large root of feedback we got crossed the board. Fans truly resonated with the dynamic combat that we had successful Godfall, and they truly liked this speech with the developer-style of play that they had. So arsenic we moved into our adjacent project, we said, 'Hey, we did it for melee. Can we propulsion it disconnected for shooters arsenic well?' So we took that, and that's wherever this accent connected physique trade comes from.

I saw a batch of rumors earlier this twelvemonth that Counterplay had unopen down, and sitting present now, that's evidently not the case. So, I'm funny if you person immoderate remark connected that concern you'd similar to share, and much specifically, what it's been similar for the workplace to spot those rumors swirl portion knowing afloat good that Counterplay's adjacent crippled is precise overmuch inactive successful development, contempt that.

Zhang: I deliberation astir of the workplace was excessively engaged moving connected the crippled (laughs) to truly wage attraction to rumours that don't truly use to their day-to-day. I deliberation the lone remark I truly person connected it is, the announcement and aboriginal merchandise of Armatus is simply a solemnisation of Counterplay Games, of our camaraderie, and this squad that has gone done heavy and bladed together. It means the satellite to america that players are going to beryllium capable to spot this game. They're going to play it, and we deliberation that radical are going to person a batch of fun. So, my remark is, spell play Armatus, and past you tin archer america however you consciousness about, right? (laughs)

Moving backmost to the crippled itself, I couldn't archer based connected the trailer alone. Is this an wholly single-player experience, oregon are determination immoderate multiplayer elements, adjacent scoreboards, oregon thing similar that?

Zhang: It's a single-player game, and arsenic for features, again, we're, we're inactive successful development, truthful hold and find out.

I get it. It’s hard to speech astir these things erstwhile the pieces are ever moving, I'm sure.

Zhang: I deliberation it's harder not to speech astir these things, right? That's benignant of the situation here.

PC, PlayStation, and Xbox versions are connected the way, but I besides saw that a Nintendo Switch 2 mentation is successful development. Were determination immoderate challenges successful bringing Armatus to that console, and is the Switch 2 mentation expected to motorboat astatine the aforesaid clip arsenic different platforms?

Zhang: Yes, they are each expected to motorboat together. The situation with these things is ever optimization, but if you've seen Godfall, a PlayStation 5 motorboat title, you cognize that, if there's 1 happening that we bash well, it's optimizing crippled systems.

Is determination thing astir Armatus that you privation to speech astir oregon that you privation players to cognize present that they're yet seeing what this looks like?

This crippled is simply a emotion missive to enactment combat successful each its forms. It's a emotion missive to the municipality fantasy, gothic fearfulness inspirations that we spot successful truthful galore games and fabrication each over, and the happening that is astir important to america present astatine Counterplay is for players to spot this missive that we've written. So, I tin travel up present and yammer astir systems and features each time long, and each I would beryllium doing is making promises to the audience, but the committedness I volition marque is that if you play our game, you're going to person a truly large acquisition of butchering each these demons.

Michael Cripe is simply a freelance writer with IGN. He's champion known for his enactment astatine sites similar The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be definite to springiness him a travel connected Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).