By By Jonathan Bolding @ PCGamer
A leaked marketing guide has alleged that the next game in the Arma series may be Arma Reforger, a game using Bohemia Interactive’s new Enfusion engine which is not, notably, Arma 4. Due to the complexity of developing Arma 4, says the guide, Bohemia intends for Arma Reforger to be a bridge between the current Arma community and the new game that will also introduce the franchise to a new audience—console players. Arma Reforger will supposedly launch on both Xbox and PlayStation consoles.
The marketing guide was posted to a Reddit forum called Gaming Leaks and Rumours. It’s being widely treated as credible given that Bohemia themselves are giving a The Future of Arma presentation on May 17th, per a post last week.
The leak says that the game will take place on a fictional island called Everon in the Atlantic ocean, near to other fictional “Armaverse” island Malden. The most notable upset is that it’ll be set in “an alternate 1989″ during a conflict between US and Soviet forces. It’s being positioned as a “military simulation game (as opposed to ‘simulator’)”, which is a more direct way to say that perhaps Arma Reforger will be a bit more accessible than previously. Bohemia also apparently hopes that by releasing the Enfusion engine and technology to modders before the launch of Arma 4 proper, a capable modding community will already be in place for launch.
Notably, the marketing guide also emphasizes Bohemia’s continued work with the International Committee of the Red Cross, previously exemplified by the Laws of War DLC for Arma 3. The marketing guide says that Arma will continue to cultivate the features of the series that have an “anti-war humanitarian focus” by continuing “to expose, disseminate, and promote International Humanitarian Law in-game.”