Mundfish Powerhouse - A New Creative Stable Launching with a Bang

Not a bad start for a new publisher. Now, it just needs to ensure delivery of the promised goods...

This year’s festivities around what would normally be E3, now headlined by Summer Game Fest (but not over all other ‘fests’ also showcasing in the same calendar spot) netted a lot of great stuff. From stand out singular games, to unique announcements, to the arrival of upstart publishers with an eye to dominating the future, we simply weren’t without great information and engaging declarations of industry import. In the wake of it all, and casting an optimistic eye toward a creative future for gaming, this year had it all.

One such Checkout Basket of future endeavour caught our eye on the AAA ‘potential’ front, by way of Mundfish and its freshly-minted Mundfish Powerhouse publishing label. Not only will it be handling in-house projects such as the promising-looking Atomic Heart 2 and the very interesting The CUBE, but it will also be taking on support duties for a horror venture we’ve been champing at the rabied bit for since we knew it existed -- ILL. Below is a longer version of the stuff shown during the reveal calendar week, which is just under 15 minutes in length, but be sure to stay on this page for more on all three of these very promising and creative-looking titles.

Atomic Heart is obviously a known quantity, and while the OG’s story and narrative delivery didn’t live up to its technical presentation and creative visuals (or ambition), the world set before us was (and still is) genuinely full of promise and opportunity. That opportunity is what we feel is driving the next leg of this IP and hopefully the studio and its now publisher self paid as much attention to the critical feedback around the first release as needed. At least to address that stuff and deliver on all fronts moving forward. Still, even on the basic premise of ‘promise’ we’re all-in on a more open-ended approach to conflict and action with Atomic Heart 2. More engaging ways to move through the world and to understand more about what makes this alternate timeline tick already has us by the ghoulies, but it’s also the idea that this is no longer a singular entity game-universe, but rather one with infinite potential, as we can see in the other major announcement from Mundfish -- The CUBE.

So, first thoughts on The CUBE from us were 'are the devs asking themselves: “How do we disrupt the battle royale or shared-world FPS genres, and their respective makeups, without losing interested players along the way”? And then is the rest just… well, hopefully for them, underpants to profits'.

If we look to connected world games, such as Call of Duty and its BR spinoffs or, more ambitiously, EVE Vanguard and its connection to EVE Online, it’s not a stretch to consider that The CUBE will follow a similar route. More importantly, though, has Mundfish discovered the new secret sauce to combating the “shrinking play area” by way of an ever-changing one with its Rubik’s Cube spin (heh) on things? Interestingly, the game’s Fact Sheet cites non Battle Royale titles as more like-for-like experiences, specifically The Division series, Destiny, Warframe and, perhaps most grabbingly, Monster Hunter.

Various Games

Genre: Various

Developer: Various

Publisher: Mundfish Powerhouse

Release Date: TBC

Classification: TBC

Author: Stephen Farrelly

Date: June 17, 2025

A handful of watches of the game’s debut video does support the idea of team-based monster hunting and extraction quests, while the ever-changing cube could also alter instances and raids, if that’s the eventual makeup of the game. But we can’t also help but think there’s more in store and that the example games just aren’t enough to truly express what players will eventually face. What we do know is that while built off Unreal, The CUBE also utilises a “Split Rendering System” that is proprietary and manages how motion is handled as the playspace moves independently of players and their own actions. At least, that’s how we’ve landed on the spin of things. This proprietary tech will power the “dynamic world of The CUBE, enabling seamless transitions, intelligent object tracking and multiplayer synchronisation”.

Does this mean bullets, thrown objects or any other projectile will change trajectory based on a cube shift? The mind does boggle a bit.

Of everything shown across all ‘fests’ this one has the most promise but also comes with the most questions. We know this studio-now-publisher has the technical chops and capabilities to pull off a vertical slice follow-through as even referenced above, but it’ll be more about keeping things engaging and unique enough to maintain player interest. There’s also the barrier of entry by way of PC specs if Atomic Heart is anything to go by. So console might be its baseline spec-set which might be good, or might even turn off some. A lot yet to learn, but definitely a cool concept and one we hope does challenge the BR and shared-world FPS space for some slice of the player pie.

Which brings us to ILL. We’ve spoken about this before, and maybe erroneously assumed a whole directive from a single vision when, actually, ILL is beginning to look like it might have a lot of catch-all horror stuff going on. So there’s a lot to love with what was shown, but about as much trepidation against the other two games mentioned above, also. However, when it comes to horror and survival horror experiences, we just can't turn a blind eye here. And ILL, honestly, took both of ours out with its debut trailer -- if it can deliver on even half of everything shown and at that level of fidelity, we’re all in for something gruesomely special.

What we do know is that in terms of survival horror firsts, Team Clout is attempting to craft the most dynamic enemies seen in the genre; unpredictable and capable of utilising the environment to their advantage with hyper-realistic physics, no encounter with any specific enemy type will, or should, be the same twice. Those physics, too, are embedded into the game’s environmental puzzles which should make for open-ended gameplay in a genre that is normally more directed and rigid when it comes to such elements.

Additionally, the studio is promising the same level of detail for weapons and resource management where items can fail or be imprecise, while there will also be an emphasis on crafting and item management, which might tap into the classic Resident Evil 4 inventory system now used by myriad games across many genres.

Honestly, we can’t wait to learn more.

Check out the carousel below for assets from all three games, and if you haven’t yet, maybe go grab Atomic Heart and give it a play. There’s a huge amount of creativity permeating this upstart group, we just hope it’s all delivered upon. Stay tuned for more as we have it.

About the Author

Written By Stephen Farrelly

Stephen Farrelly is a veteran journalist and editor with more than two decades experience in the worlds of gaming, entertainment, lifestyle and sport. He is a proud pug dad, loves art in all forms (particularly street and tattoo culture), and is the director of Swear Jar Editorial and Media Pty Ltd, this site's owner and publisher. When not dispensing words, he's also dispensing boutique beers as a taproom fixture at Bracket Brewing in Marrickville, NSW...