Dubbed "Necessary Force," the studio's current project in an original property that sees players take control of a do-whatever-it-takes detective in a corrupt open-world.

"The idea of a detective who sets his own rules is the sort of story that's been around in movies for a while, but we don't think anyone's managed to capture the essence of those choices and consequences in games," studio head Craig Duncan told Develop.

"That unprecedented level of open world influence and troubled morality is something we're really keen to explore," he added.

As with Newcastle's latest release, last fall's open-world action-driving game Wheelman, Necessary Force is powered by modified version of the Unreal Engine 3. No platforms have been confirmed--the game has only been in development for three months--but PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions are feasible.

"UE3 is built for characters walking through levels, not people speeding at more than 100 miles per hour through a seamless world," Duncan explained. "We've overcome that--we've now got about 35 man years of tech on top of base Unreal...we're really proficient with the engine...we've got this great base of technology for open-world games."

Duncan added that "everyone here has worked together for at least two years, with the original core team still together after about ten years," and noted that while the studio's future is unclear, its staff is "still putting in a huge amount of effort now; staying until nine in the evening working on this...because they're all so motivated by [Necessary Force.]"

"Operationally we've really hit our stride now," he concluded. "We know what we are capable of and that we would make a strong addition to any company."