Monaco Gets a Release Platform. No Release Date

Pocketwatch Games' Monaco has been around for years. We've seen this multiplayer heist game at almost every tradeshow and convention we go to, and it's almost always a joy to play. So what's been holding it up? Well, it's hard to say other than the creators have taken a Valve-esque "When it's great" attitude with the game, meaning that we see a slightly different itteration every time we play. 

Now, out of the darkness we seem to be getting a little movement. Though no release date has been announced, we are getting word that Monaco will be available for both PC and XBLA simultaniously, with Pocketwatch handling the PC version themselves and the XBLA version being published by Majesco. 

Speaking to Joystiq today, designer Andy Schatz said,

"Monaco was originally designed to be played with four friends on the couch, all planning and executing a heist together," "Majesco recognized that Monaco was a game that won awards and had developed a huge pre-release following for a reason: it is incredibly accessible, but different," Schatz told Joystiq. "They wanted us to run with it and trusted in our vision for the game from the very beginning. They also let us self-publish on the PC simultaneously. They've been fantastic to work with ... it's actually kinda been exactly what a lot of indies dream that a good publisher/developer relationship should be like."

I'm glad that we're slowly moving toward a release date for this title. As time has moved on, Monaco has become more and more of a cooks stew, with some asepcts -especially the visual- become a little bogged down in stylization over functionality in this humble writers opinion. Still, it has bagged a truckload of awards since it appeared, hopefully the general gaming populace will take to it just as well.