Ten years in, the studio behind some of the most demanding role-playing games on PC has a message for fans worried it is chasing the mainstream: the hardcore CRPG is not going anywhere. Owlcat Games — the team behind Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, and Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader — just marked its tenth anniversary by growing to around 600 employees, and its co-founder used the moment to promise the studio will keep making the dense, choice-heavy games that built its name.
‘We Will Continue to Make CRPGs Because We Love Them’
Creative director and co-founder Alexander Mishulin put it plainly: “We will continue to make CRPGs because we love them.” He framed it not as a marketing line but as the studio’s identity. Owlcat’s reputation was built on systems-heavy adventures with sprawling rule sets, tough tactical combat, and reactive stories that remember your choices — the kind of games that reward patience and punish button-mashing.
Mishulin also pushed back on the idea that growth means going soft. “We do not want to become stagnant,” he said, adding that the studio will keep experimenting with different approaches to find the best fit for each game’s idea. In other words, Owlcat wants to evolve its craft without abandoning the audience that made it successful.
Why 600 Employees Changes the Math
Scale is the real story here. A decade ago, Owlcat was a small Cyprus-based outfit taking a gamble on old-school RPG design. Now, at roughly 600 people, it has the capacity to run two major projects at once — which is what makes the “we can do both” promise credible rather than wishful.
That headcount lets Owlcat keep feeding its core CRPG fans while it reaches for a bigger audience with The Expanse: Osiris Reborn, its most cinematic, mainstream-facing project yet. The studio has openly described that game as its shot at a Mass Effect–style action RPG, a clear step outside its comfort zone. Running it alongside traditional CRPGs is only possible because the team finally has the people to do it.
What It Signals for RPG Fans
For a genre that spent years being written off as too niche, Owlcat’s confidence is a good sign. The studio is betting there is room to serve both the tactics diehards and newcomers who want something slicker — and its recent track record suggests it can. Fresh off the well-received Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy and the build-crafting playground of Rogue Trader, Owlcat has real momentum on its side.
The lesson for the rest of the industry is worth noting: you can grow without watering down what made you special. Owlcat is treating its identity as an asset, not a limitation — and for RPG fans, that is exactly the kind of stubbornness worth cheering.
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