From Press Release:
April 17, 2025 – Hooded Horse is pleased to announce it’s publishing 9 Kings, the fast-paced roguelite kingdom builder from Sad Socket that marries card-based mechanics with massive battles. Become the King of Kings by crafting insane builds and breaking the game when it launches on PC via Steam Early Access on May 19, 2025. Hooded Horse will be partnering with INSTINCT3, who previously signed on with Sad Socket to promote 9 Kings in the GAS region, covering Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Through endless combinations of troops, spells, buildings, and unit positioning, players must build up their city into the most powerful in all the land in their quest to become the King of Kings. Featuring a plethora of unique cards and massive real-time battles, players can also gather unique perks that completely change the way the game is played in each successive run.
9 Kings recently had a successful run during Steam Next Fest February 2025, with over 200,000 unique players, a 95% “Overwhelmingly Positive” on the demo page, and plenty of positive critical reception, which has propelled it to over 170,000 wishlists on Steam as things stand today.
“I have already lost countless hours to the 9 Kings demo, and my productivity has ground to a halt,” says Hooded Horse CEO Tim Bender. “I sought bonuses and combos to break the game, but the game broke me. I’m left with no choice but to publish the game so I can pretend my endless play sessions qualify as work. Don’t tell the shareholders.”
“There comes a point in a project when it’s really time to bring in the cavalry,” says Sad Socket Co-Founder Radael Melo. “We couldn’t ask for a better partner than Hooded Horse.”
The game will be localized from English into German, French, Spanish (including Latin American Spanish), Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Greek, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Slovak, Turkish, Ukrainian, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Malay, Filipino, and Japanese.
9 Kings will release on PC via Steam Early Access on May 19, 2025. A press kit is available.
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