MS grabs XBLA game Hydrophobia

By Robert Purchese Published 26 March, 2010

Watery action game bobs back up.

Dark Energy Digital has revealed this morning that Microsoft will publish watery action game Hydrophobia as an XBLA exclusive.

The last we heard was in October 2009, when Hydrophobia was said to be an episodic XBLA series.

There's no mention of episodes in this latest press release, though - nor a date for the game's arrival.

All we're told is that Hydrophobia has a flashy HydroEngine - the same one they've been banging on about since 2007 - that makes water look and behave realistically. As such, it'll be a key component of the game's action and puzzle sequences.

Hydrophobia takes place in a fictional (or is it?) near future where the world has become over-populated. The elite have fled to a ship called the Queen of the World and there they work on a final solution for the overcrowded planet.

But the ship is hit by a terrorists and you find yourself caught in the middle, battling to escape a sinking vessel while unravelling the reasons behind the attack.

Eurogamer TV has a brand new Hydrophobia trailer to watch. It's certainly impressive for an XBLA game. Best viewed side-by-side with a Hydrophobia trailer from 2008, of course.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Poorandugly #1 2 years ago

    Makes it water in my mouth...

  • peterfll #2 2 years ago

    Makes me wanna have a new WaveRace title....

  • menage #3 2 years ago

    Didn't this start as a PS3 exclusive?

  • GamesConnoisseur #4 2 years ago

    Will be obviously gonna be heavily compared to BioShock but this seem to place water and the interactions with the stuff very much into heart of the game. BioShock just mostly use water as texture and very little puzzles.

    As for X360 getting an exclusive, would say about time as PS3 are showing much stronger exclusives and had wondered if MS taken their eyes off the ball!

  • YobRenoops #5 2 years ago

    This game is amazing. Underwater Combat kicks all arses.

  • frunk #6 2 years ago

    That looks mighty fine... and yeah the XBox has scarce exclusivity these days, recently my PS3 has been getting all the love. So will probably fire this up and tempt my launch XBox into failing :)

  • Skurmedel #7 2 years ago

    I remember the underwater levels in Tomb Raider 2, bloody frustrating and good at the same time. Pesky sharks all over and all you had was a harpoon. Of course, way less pesky than the old-man-turned-Dragon.

  • miiiguel #8 2 years ago

    That looks mighty fine... and yeah the XBox has scarce exclusivity these days, recently my PS3 has been getting all the love.

    You only play "exclusives" ? I don't even know what "exclusives" mean, like in, what an exclusive game has more than a non-exclusive?
    When I'm interested in a game "exclusivity" is never one of the items I care for. Am I missing something?

  • GamesConnoisseur #9 2 years ago

    X360 still has mighty games but the sad fact is that the exclusive portfolio does matters to the supporters of either platform, and where one is ahead then that would get the 'winning' position.

    Example; PSP and DS, PSP on its own did sells reasonably well but in comparasion to DS then PSP get muds stuck to it. Very simplistic I know but one of the factors that would bears on people mind.

    Though, X360 are in a no way in a similar position as PSP as indeed its the most supported console with numbers of games past and future coming on it. Hydro looks like a good exclusive and would love to see MS doing more.

  • Skurmedel #10 2 years ago

    Umm, what,... to the supporters of each platform? You mean raging fanboys?

  • GamesConnoisseur #11 2 years ago

    Yeah basically, as they are the most vocals!!

    Just look at the forum posts and usually the list of exclusives get dusted off to back up arguments as to which is the bestest console!

    However as a gamer we would love to see more games coming and not just third parties, exclusives does matter in ensuring maximum optimisation of the game on the platform and also getting strong support from the platform holder in marketing/advertising etc.

    So in long run exclusives could help sell the system, and raises the net investment/developments for the console.

  • sd99 #12 2 years ago

    I want this, but may wait for the episodes to be collected in a disc version before I buy.

  • FireMonkey #13 2 years ago

    GamesConnoisseur - Do exclusives really help 'that' much these days? Back in the old days where pretty much the entire catalogue of games was exclusive to one console or another it did, but nowadays the vast majority of games are cross platform and so, to me, the exclusivity of a few games has never been enough to sway my decision as to which console to get / is best.
    Nowadays as cross platform games are the norm, I prefer to look at the quality of the ones that interest me most and whichever console does them best gets my vote.

    Maybe that's just me though.

    (Note: I have tried to be careful not getting into a Console A is better than Console B argument here. As far as I'm concerned both platforms have benefits, both have great games and there is not enough difference between them to really argue either way. Just enjoy what you have)

  • ignatiusjreilly #14 2 years ago

    Lots have people will have bought an Xbox 360 to play Gears of War.

    Microsoft have been aggressively securing exclusives wherever they can throughout this generation, even if it's just a DLC pack for a few weeks, so I suspect they are pretty sure there's big benefits to denying a game to your rivals.

  • FireMonkey #15 2 years ago

    ignatiusjreilly - Maybe it's just me that can't afford to spend £200+ to play a single game.
    I'm not saying exclusives don't help at all, just that if every cross platform game on 360 was appallingly bad compared to PS3, would people still buy one just to play Gears? I'd have thought most people would have taken into consideration the quality of all the games of the type they like to play and base the choice on that.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #16 2 years ago

    @FireMonkey

    I bought an original Xbox essentially just to play Halo. Well, okay, not just - I knew Lionhead were doing their groovy-looking "Project Ego", but basically, in 2001, Halo was all I wanted to play. Everything else was just gravy and a vague assumption that the games wouldn't suck.

    But anyway: Hydrophobia. Looks good.

  • miiiguel #17 2 years ago

    Those are more or less fair points - the issues about how a game can sell a console -, but what I questioned was, in the consumer point of view what does it matter?

    Ok, my friend GamesC. somehow gave a reason, but outside the "esoteric" scope, I can't see any.
    Edited by miiiguel at 26/03/10 @ 11:02

  • ignatiusjreilly #18 2 years ago

    I guess it doesn't (or shouldn't) really matter to gamers if a game isn't an an exclusive, but if it is, half of them are gonna miss out.

  • frunk #19 2 years ago

    @miiiguel & @trebell

    Exclusives are important... I really wish they weren't but they are what differentiate platforms. And this year its been the PS3 ones that have appealed more to me!

    I can only talk what appeals to ME! I speak for no-one else!

    ME2 has been the only AAA 360 exclusive this year, whereas the PS3 has had a good chunk more so far. Metro I would get for my PC... so not strictly exclusive.

    Hydrophobia looks like a good catch for XBLA - and I wish it every success... its "different enough" and appealing for me to go out and buy. Its perhaps why I prefer the PSN exclusives - they tend to be a little different thanks to thatgamecompany and Q-Games. Although I am tempted to get the Muscleman game on the Wii for post pub madness!

    But I agree with most of the non-fanboy comments here - the 2009-2010 cycle of PS3/XBox has been SWEET for any gamer.

    Long may competition reign in the VG industry as a sense of rivalry works well as they fight for your wallet.

    Fanboys on the other hand can just f**k off and die! Just get over it! Its just a bloody console!

  • SpaceMonkey77 #20 2 years ago

    Always best to have all systems, a gamer code I try to live by.

    This game looks interesting in its own right. I'll look forward to checking it out.

  • geololj #21 2 years ago

    Does anyone know the name of the song that plays in the trailer ? :D