Robert Bowling, former creative strategist at Infinity Ward, has launched a new Los Angeles-based studio called //18.bravo.
“We’re building a studio that ties leadership compensation to employee success,” Bowling shared on LinkedIn.
“We have an employee royalty plan, and [will] share profits with external talents (voice actors, mocap actors, and contractors).”
Speaking to IGN, Bowling described the industry as “over commercialised” and stated that “it’s time for a radically different approach.”
“As an industry, we’ve neglected our players and abused our staff to focus on ever-increasing profit projections,” he said.
“Live service is killing development teams, unending content treadmills of [free-to-play] gaming are draining players, and the AAA studio system has failed.”
Bowling also emphasized that although the studio’s debut game will include an online component, it will not follow a live service model.
“The foundation of the game is focused around supporting ‘forever play’ which means optimised P2P architecture that allows the community to play together even if the company moves on.”
He noted that if the studio closes, “[its] assets, code, and everything required to extend the game (except third party integrations and licensed music) will become open source by default.”
“Most importantly, we will be releasing all the legal paperwork and processes that make this possible publicly so the model can be replicated easily and at low cost to those who decide to mimic the model.”
Bowling previously co-founded and served as studio head at Midnight Society, which closed in February 2025 following layoffs the previous year.
