Canberra studio places Australian gaming on the map with new title unveiled at Xbox Showcase

Ed Ormon and Andrew James from Uppercut Games are among the many leaders in sport improvement in Australia. Photo: Morgan Kenyon.

The online game business is price an eyewatering $250 billion a yr, double that of the movie business.

Yet till lately, Australia hasn’t actually backed the event of video video games domestically.

This might change following the latest reveal of Canberra-based studio Uppercut Games’ new undertaking, Magicians: The Devil’s Deal, at one of many world’s greatest gaming conferences, the Xbox Games Showcase 2026.

Developed by Canberra-based studio Uppercut Games, Magicians: The Devil’s Deal is a narrative-driven first-person shooter set in Theatreland, a twisted world constructed on phantasm and management.

Players tackle the position of Jacob Menteuro, a celebrated stage magician solid into Hell, who should grasp lethal magic, steal the powers of rival magicians, and combat his method free. The sport is ready for launch in 2027 on Xbox, PS5 and PC.

Co-founder and director at Uppercut Games Ed Orman mentioned it has been tough to maintain the undertaking a secret, however he’s proud to now share it with the world.

“We’ve been building an amazing team at Uppercut Games here in Canberra and across Australia to make this game,” he mentioned.

“To have it revealed as part of the Xbox Games Showcase is something we’re immensely proud of.”

Uppercut has been engaged on the sport for a number of years and has acquired partial funding from Screen Canberra.

Screen Canberra CEO Holly Trueman mentioned the enterprise into gaming is a brand new one for Screen Canberra, however one they’re excited to see develop.

“We have only just started funding games. Screen Canberra has been supporting TV and film projects for a long time, but we haven’t really had a formal mechanism to support games until recently,” Dr Trueman mentioned.

“We learnt that Canberra has this underbelly of those wonderful creatives which have by no means actually had the possibility to indicate off their skills.

“We met the workforce at Undercut Gaming a number of instances and noticed what they had been engaged on, and we had been excited to help them with their improvement.

“For a couple of years, we’ve had to be quiet about what they were working on. Gaming is a pretty secretive industry, but to see now that they’ve had their game revealed at one of the biggest gaming events in the world is just really exciting.”

In latest years, Australia has helped among the greatest Indie video games on the earth, with Hollow Knight: Silksong, developed in Adelaide, successful Best Action/Adventure Game on the 2025 Gaming Awards and Untitled Goose Game, developed in Melbourne, promoting greater than 3 million copies since 2019.

With the recent hype round Magicians: The Devil’s Deal, Dr Trueman mentioned she would like to see Canberra change into the gaming capital of Australia.

“In Canberra, we can’t dig up iron ore, but maybe the iron ore is in the form of the next smash hit game,” she mentioned.

“We’ve been working tremendous exhausting as much as that point to construct companies, construct functionality, and create some alternatives for our youthful builders.

“We’ve got a lot of people in Canberra who are in this space, and that’s where we’ll be focusing in Screen Canberra over the next six months, which is to really build up, so there are really strong projects that we can move forward. ”

Magicians: The Devil’s Deal is now accessible to wishlist on Xbox.

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