Unreal Engine 4-Powered Insurgency: Sandstorm Announced

New World Interactive announced today that they are currently rebuilding their Source Engine FPS Insurgency in Unreal Engine 4 for PS4, Xbox One, Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux for release in 2017. The new edition will be called Insurgency: Sandstorm and will feature visual upgrades, such as the image pictured above, as well as console support, split-screen multiplayer, a single-player story mode, and an "eSports framework."

The story mode will start at 2003's invasion of Iraq and work its way to the present day. It will focus on a "squad of characters," going through several "increasingly challenging chapters."

The new eSports framework will be in Sandstorm at release, but it will be beta tested in the Source Engine version prior to that. A release date for this framework has yet to be revealed other than "as soon as possible."

Sandstorm will be published by Focus Home Interactive. New World Interactive's Founder and Game Director Jeremy Blum had this to say about the announcement: "We are very excited about working with Focus on Insurgency: Sandstorm. We believe there’s a great opportunity for Insurgency on next-gen consoles and that aligning with a strong publisher will allow us to best leverage this. Considering our background, it was not easy finding a publisher we felt compatible with. We decided to work with Focus because they understand our game and they believe in our vision. In addition, they bring a wealth of knowledge when it comes to shipping console games and marketing to that audience."