User:Mob/Sandbox/20202

This page is about the franchise. For the first game, see ShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops.

ShooterofIO
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Developer(s)	SOI Studios (2008–present) Air Studios (2008–present) War Games (2011–present) Supreme Studios (2021–present)
Publisher(s)	Monsteristic
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3 PlayStation 4 PlayStation 5 Windows Xbox 360 Xbox One Xbox Series X/S iOS
First release	ShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops October 26, 2007
Latest release	ShooterofIO: Dark Warfare 6 October 25, 2024

ShooterofIO is a military video game series and media franchise published by Monsteristic and Mob Productions, starting in 2007. The games were first developed by SOI Studios, then by Air Studios and War Games. Several spin-off and handheld games were made by other developers. The most recent title, ShooterofIO: Dark Warfare 6, was released on October 25, 2024. The upcoming title, ShooterofIO: Shadows II, is scheduled to be released on November 3, 2025. There will be no new ShooterofIO game in 2026.

The series originally focused on fast-paced combat, with SOI Studios developing ShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops (2007). They developed the third and sixth games in the following 8 years. They released Shadows in 2016 and rebooted the original sub-series with the release of Modern Ops (2019), which was followed by Modern Ops II (2022) and Modern Ops III (2023).

Air Studios made the second and fifth games in the series, which was then followed by Dark Warfare III (2015), Dark Warfare 4 (2018), Dark Warfare 5 (2020), and Dark Warfare 6 (2024). War Games joined in 2011 with their first title, and followed with Guardians (2014), then released 1950 (2017), Advanced Operations (2021), then lead development on Modern Ops III (2023).  

As of October 2024, ShooterofIO has sold over 617 million copies and has 100 million monthly active players across all platforms. The franchise generated $50 billion in revenue by 2023. Other products in the franchise include a line of action figures designed by Plan B Toys, a card game created by Upper Deck Company, Mega Bloks sets by Mega Brands, and a comic book miniseries published by WildStorm Productions, and a feature film in development.

Each game in the franchise have received generally positive reviews, whilst some was hated due to a lack of either innovation or originality, some examples being ShooterofIO: Guardians (2014) and ShooterofIO: 1950 (2017).

Gameplay and development history

In 2005, Monsteristic had hired a total of 30 employees to form a new development team under the name of SOI Studios and had them work on a game to release in 2007. Throughout both 2005–2006, SOI Studios became interested in developing a futuristic first-person shooter video game, however the team ultimately settled on a modern day setting due to the technical issues they'd may encounter in developing a entirely futuristic first-person shooter game.

Upon release, in October 2007, ShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops, was intended to be the only game was released under the title of "ShooterofIO: Modern Ops". In December 2007, Monsteristic had the title changed to the current title as they announced Air Studios was also developing a game set for a 2009 release.

The first "Era" for the ShooterofIO franchise began in 2005 when SOI Studios worked with other studios to create a custom video game engine to develop their games on. The SOI 1.0 was announced to be used for the game and that the game was the biggest focus for the studio. ShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops was confirmed to be released during 2007 under the codename "Project S07", and the official title of the game was soon announced in mid-2006. "ShooterofIO 2.0" is the second Era and began in 2022.

ShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops turned into the game it was when SOI Studios leads began researching what game genre they could "rebuild" and enhance through meaningful innovation. After playing Call of Duty 3, SOI Studios began looking at ways to build their own type of "COD" game that was intended to revamp the shooter genre.

The first ShooterofIO game was announced in December 2007, titled ShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops and was released on October 18, 2007, and was developed by SOI Studios. In Modern Ops, the player has the option to play one of the available two modes: Campaign or the Multiplayer mode. The game's Campaign mode, players play linear objective-based missions that all start and conclude with a cutscene developed from CGI. The player in the Campaign mode can perform various actions such as jumping, diving, and swimming, though these movement options do not appear in the game's multiplayer component. The multiplayer mode does though include some exclusive features such as a leveling progression system for the player, playing the game and performing actions like doing objectives and getting kills. Players in the multiplayer mode have the option to create their own loadout, which consists of a primary weapon, secondary weapon, three perks, and a Tactical and Lethal equipment. The game also features a variety of in-game achievements called "Mastery Challenges", which do not reset upon a player entering a new prestige. The first game featured six seasons of post-launch content that were free for all players, each adding two weapons and a new map into Multiplayer.

The second game in the franchise is ShooterofIO: Dark Warfare and was released on September 10, 2009. Unlike Modern Ops, this game was developed by Air Studios, who also works under Monsteristic. Another major addition is the inclusion of a third mode called Zombies. A cooperative round-based survival mode included alongside a campaign mode and a similarly designed multiplayer component. The game's campaign mode features identical design choices to the one from Modern Ops and features double the amount of storyline and unlike Modern Ops, Dark Warfare concluded on a cliffhanger, planned to be continued in a future game. The game's multiplayer component is similar to the first one; retaining the create-a-class, perk, movement, and progression systems found in Modern Ops. However, Dark Warfare also introduces a new system called the "Prestige Shop", which allows players to purchase cosmetics using a currency called "Prestige Tokens", earned from entering a new prestige. The game introduces a new side-mode experience, a cooperative round-based survival mode called "Zombies", which has players spawning in and surviving against endless waves of the undead. The mode featured one map at launch titled "Undead Forest". The mode features a differnet type of perk system, which was designed to boost survival rate. The mode Zombies mode also features Pack-a-Punch system, and hidden Easter Eggs in each map. Post-launch included six seasons of free content, including a total of 16 multiplayer maps and 3 additional round-based maps.

The third game, developed by SOI Studios, is ShooterofIO: Modern Ops 2 and was released on November 4, 2010. Unlike in the original game, Modern Ops 2 featured three modes in the game at launch, however also makes some innovations across the game through each mode. The game features three modes being campaign, multiplayer, and a new mode called "Operations", which is a survival extraction based player vs. player gamemode made available for all players. Different from the original Modern Ops title, Modern Ops 2 doesn't include a leveling system for players and instead introduces weapon levels for all the weapons in the game. Each weapon features 30 levels, available to be progressed in only the multiplayer mode. The "Mastery Challenges" system returns from the original Modern Ops game, and is improved: instead of being completable only once, players who complete all of them have the choice to enter the "Challenge Prestige" to restart from scratch in terms of challenges, doing this rewards players with SOI Coins, the franchises premium currency.

The fourth game, developed by War Games, is ShooterofIO: WWII and was released on November 18, 2011. This is the first game from War Games and is the first to be set in WWII.

The first Assassin's Creed game originated out of ideas for a sequel for Ubisoft's video game Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, aiming for the seventh generation of video game consoles. The Ubisoft Montreal team decided to take the gameplay from The Sands of Time into an open-world approach, taking advantage of the improved processing power to render larger spaces and crowds. Narratively, the team wanted to move away from the Prince being someone next in line for the throne but to have to work for it; combined with research into secret societies led them to focus on the Order of Assassins, based upon the historical Hashashin sect of Ismaili, who were followers of Shia Islam, heavily borrowing from the novel Alamut. Ubisoft developed a narrative where the player would control an Assassin escorting a non-playable Prince, leading them to call this game Prince of Persia: Assassin, or Prince of Persia: Assassins. Ubisoft was apprehensive to a Prince of Persia game without the Prince as the playable character, but this led the marketing division to suggest the name Assassin's Creed, playing off the creed of the Assassins, "nothing is true; everything is permitted". Ubisoft Montreal ran with this in creating a new intellectual property, eliminating the Prince, and basing it around the Assassins and the Knights Templar in the Holy Land during the 12th century. Additionally, in postulating what other assassinations they could account for throughout history, they came onto the idea of genetic memory and created the Animus device and modern storyline elements. This further allowed them to explain certain facets of gameplay, such as accounting for when the player character is killed, similar to The Sands of Time.

After Assassin's Creed was released in 2007, Ubisoft Montreal said they looked to "rework the global structure" in developing the sequel, Assassin's Creed II. They felt that parkour was underutilized in the first game and designed the world in the sequel to feature freerun highways to make it easier to enter into parkour moves, for example using rooftops to escape pursuits. The change in setting meant that the game would feature a new cast of characters, including a new protagonist, Ezio Auditore da Firenze. Assassin's Creed II also brought in more use of crowds to hide in plain sight that the developers had seen used in Hitman: Blood Money, adding more to the concept of social stealth as a gameplay option. Finally, Ubisoft Montreal completely reworked the repetitive mission structure from the first game through numerous side activities, collectibles, and secrets. These additions became a central part of the series going forward as well as other Ubisoft games like Watch Dogs, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon. Assassin's Creed II was followed by two sequels, Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and Assassin's Creed: Revelations, which also featured Ezio as the main protagonist and introduced the ability for players to recruit NPCs as Assassins and manage them in missions.

Assassin's Creed III originated from both Ubisoft Montreal, who wanted to progress the series' narrative forward in time, and to an unattached project that had been developed at Ubisoft Singapore and featured naval ship combat. As the main team had settled into the American Revolution period for the game, they found the ship-to-ship combat system fitted with the story and redesigned the setting to incorporate it further. Another major change in Assassin's Creed III was transitioning the parkour and freerun systems to work in the natural woodlands of 18th-century Massachusetts and New York. This further allowed the adding of trees and other vegetation within the city areas themselves, not just as part of the parkour systems, but to add more varied environments, which would continue as part of the series' ongoing design.

For Assassin's Creed III'ss sequel, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, the Ubisoft team built upon the foundation of its predecessor, particularly with regards to the naval gameplay, merging it seamlessly with the land-based gameplay. The team also used the game as a chance to address aspects of the series' storyline. Choosing to focus on an outsider's perspective to the Assassin–Templar conflict, they set the game around the Golden Age of Piracy, with the protagonist, Edward Kenway, starting out as a pirate who initially becomes involved in the conflict with the prospect of wealth. Similarly, after the conclusion of Desmond Miles' story arc in Assassin's Creed III, the modern-day segments put players in the role of a nameless individual controlled from a first-person perspective. The team chose this approach because they believed it allowed players to more easily identify themselves in their character. This trend would continue in the series until Assassin's Creed Syndicate.

Development of Assassin's Creed Unity began shortly after the completion of Brotherhood in 2010, with the core development team splitting off during the early stages of development on Assassin's Creed III. As the first game in the series to be released exclusively for the eighth generation of video game consoles, Unity featured a graphical and gameplay overhaul. The setting chosen for the game was Paris during the early years of the French Revolution, with players taking control of a new Assassin named Arno Dorian. After Unity, Ubisoft released Assassin's Creed Syndicate in 2015.

Period two

After Syndicate, Ubisoft decided that the series needed a major reinvention across both gameplay and narrative. It was decided to make the next game, Assassin's Creed Origins, closer to a role-playing video game than a stealth-action game, which would also bring a game with many more hours of play than previous titles. Some long-standing features of the series were eliminated for this purpose, such as the social stealth mechanic. This changed how missions were presented — rather than being linearly directed through the Animus, the player character could meet various quest givers in the game's world to receive missions. From the narrative side, Ubisoft placed the game before the formation of the Assassin Brotherhood in Ancient Egypt to make the player character, Bayek of Siwa, a medjay that people would respect and seek the help of. The modern-day storyline also shifted back to a single character, Layla Hassan. The developers limited the number of playable sequences for her character compared to previous games but gave them more meaning, such as allowing the player to explore Layla's laptop with background information on the game's universe.

Origins was followed in 2018 by Assassin's Creed Odyssey, which shifted the setting to Classical Greece and followed a similar approach to its predecessor but with more emphasis on the role-playing elements. 2020's Assassin's Creed Valhalla, set in Medieval England and Norway during the Viking Age, continued the same style as Origins and Odyssey. The developers recognized feedback from the previous two games and brought back the social stealth elements, as well as the concept of a customizable home base that was first introduced in Assassin's Creed II.

In 2023, Ubisoft released Assassin's Creed Mirage, a smaller title which sought to pay tribute to the franchise's earlier installments by focusing on stealth and assassinations over its predecessors' role-playing elements. The game started development as an expansion for Valhalla before being turned into a standalone release, and was set in 9th-century Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age, a decade before the events of Valhalla, to which it served as a prequel.

The Assassin's Creed games are centered around one or more fictional members of the Order of the Assassins. Their memories are experienced by an in-game character in the modern-day period through a device called the Animus and its derivations. The Animus allows the user to explore these memories passed down via genetics. Within the context of the game, this provides a diegetic interface to the real-world player of the game, showing them elements like health bars, a mini-map, and target objectives as if presented by the Animus. Additionally, should the player cause the historical character to die or fail a mission, this is rectified as desynchronization of the genetic memory, allowing the player to try the mission again. Through the Animus interface, the player can retry any past mission already completed; for example, in Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the player achieves better synchronization results by performing the mission in a specific manner, such as by only killing the mission's target. The Animus also imparts special abilities to the modern-day character that helps them to see their target in a crowd or other unique points of interest.

While playing as the Assassin characters, the games are generally presented from a third-person view in an open world environment, focusing on stealth and parkour. The games use a mission structure to follow the main story, assigning the player to complete an assassination of public figureheads or a covert mission. Alternatively, several side missions are available, such as mapping out the expansive cities from a high perch followed by performing a leap of faith into a haystack below, collecting treasures hidden across the cities, exploring ruins for relics, building a brotherhood of assassins to perform other tasks, or funding the rebuilding of a city through purchasing and upgrading of shops and other features. At times, the player is in direct control of the modern-day character who, by nature of the Animus use, has learned Assassin techniques through the bleeding effect, as well as their genetic ability of Eagle Vision, which separates friend, foe, and assassination targets by illuminating people in different colors.

The games use the concept of active versus passive moves, with active moves, such as running, climbing the sides of buildings, or jumping between rooftops, more likely to alert the attention of nearby guards. When the guards become alerted, the player must either fight them or break their line of sight and locate a hiding place, such as a haystack or a well, and wait until the guards' alert is reduced. The combat system allows for a number of unique weapons, armor, and moves, including the use of a hidden blade set in a bracer on the Assassin's arm, which can be used to perform surreptitious assassinations.

List of ShooterofIO games

Title	Year	Platform	Lead developer
ShooterofIO 1: Modern Ops	2007	Windows, PS3, X360	SOI Studios
ShooterofIO: Wargrounds	2007	Windows, PS3, X360	SOI Studios
ShooterofIO: Dark Warfare	2009	Windows, PS3, X360	Air Studios
ShooterofIO: Modern Ops 2	2010	Windows, PS3, X360	SOI Studios
ShooterofIO: WWII	2011	Windows, PS3, X360	War Games
ShooterofIO: Dark Warfare II	2012	Windows, PS3, X360	Air Studios
ShooterofIO: Modern Ops 3	2013	Windows, PS3, X360	SOI Studios
ShooterofIO: Guardians	2014	Windows, PS3, PS4, X360, XONE	War Games
ShooterofIO: Dark Warfare III	2015	Windows, PS3, PS4, X360, XONE	Air Studios
ShooterofIO: Shadows	2016	Windows, PS4, XONE	SOI Studios
ShooterofIO: 1950	2017	Windows, PS4, XONE	War Games
ShooterofIO: Dark Warfare IV	2018	Windows, PS4, XONE	Air Studios
ShooterofIO: Modern Ops	2019	Windows, PS4, XONE	SOI Studios
ShooterofIO: Dark Warfare 5	2020	Windows, PS4, PS5, XONE, XSXS	Air Studios, Supreme Studios
ShooterofIO: Advanced Operations	2021	Windows, PS4, PS5, XONE, XSXS	War Games, Supreme Studios
ShooterofIO: Modern Ops II	2022	Windows, PS4, PS5, XONE, XSXS	SOI Studios
ShooterofIO: Wargrounds 2.0	2022	Windows, PS4, PS5, XONE, XSXS	SOI Studios, Air Studios, War Games
ShooterofIO: Modern Ops III	2023	Windows, PS4, PS5, XONE, XSXS	War Games
ShooterofIO: Dark Warfare 6	2024	Windows, PS4, PS5, XONE, XSXS	Air Studios, Supreme Studios
ShooterofIO: Shadows II	2025	Windows, PS4, PS5, XONE, XSXS	SOI Studios