The development of DISTORTION has been restarted—previously, the game's budget was estimated at $100 million

The Russian company Game Art Pioneers has announced a complete restart of the development of DISTORTION, a role-playing game that had previously been projected to cost over $100 million. The reason for the project’s reconsideration was the team’s lack of a definitive vision for what the game should be.

This was stated in a press release from Game Art Pioneers dated October 28. The company presented updated images of DISTORTION and announced that it now intends to develop the project with consideration of audience feedback and market analysis results conducted by its own analytical service.

According to Gleb Kadomtsev, the Director of Development at Game Art Pioneers, the lack of a unified vision for DISTORTION also led to personnel changes.

“We couldn’t reach out to the audience without being completely certain about the game we were making,” Kadomtsev admitted.

The developers now claim to have settled on the project's concept. However, full production on the updated DISTORTION has not yet begun.

It’s worth recalling that the ambitious plans for DISTORTION by Game Art Pioneers became known several years ago. In December 2023, App2Top reported that the project’s stated budget exceeded $100 million. A studio representative confirmed at the time that this was the minimum planned amount, though the actual funding available to the company remained unknown.

Initially, the first act of DISTORTION was planned to be released in early access at the end of 2025. However, timelines were repeatedly changed. In February 2025, Game Art Pioneers informed our editorial team of a delay in early access to 2028. At that time, the company's founder, Dmitry Zdesev, also left, citing disagreements over the future development of the business as his reason for departure.

Notably, in an interview with App2Top at the beginning of 2026, Kadomtsev spoke about the transformation of Game Art Pioneers' business model. According to him, the necessity of attracting large investments compelled the company to rethink its development approach and create its own tool for assessing the potential of gaming niches.

In its new statement, Game Art Pioneers did not disclose the current budget for DISTORTION, the amount of funds already invested, or the release timelines following the reboot. It is also unknown what portion of the previous work has been retained in the updated project.