One of the crucial-talked about video games at Gamescom 2026 this yr was a title nobody had ever heard of, coming from a studio avid gamers didn’t even know existed — however each of these issues are prone to change within the subsequent yr, with MBC Game Studio making massive plans for its launch title, 1001 Threads of Mizan, its personal tackle 1001 Arabian Nights.
The debut trailer for the fantasy journey sport — the primary launch from the brand new studio owned and supported by Center East-based media firm MBC Group — racked up near 70 million views in its first week of launch, with the 20-minute playable demo prompting followers to courageous three-hour-long strains throughout the four-day Gamescom conference. A reimagining of conventional Arabic folktales, 1001 Threads of Mizan is a three-player co-op journey sport that locations gamers on the entrance strains of a battle to stop corrupted supernatural beings return to plague the mortal world. Seeing the demo land the sport on best-of lists from the show was the newest step in a journey that’s already lasted years.
The 1001 Threads of Mizan sales space at GamesCon 2026
MBC Sport Studio
“We fairly meaningfully began scaling the crew at MBC Sport Studio in 2023 however clearly, there was numerous conceptualizing main as much as that,” says Daniel Engelhardt, CEO of MBC Sport Studio and a gaming business veteran whose resume contains Fortnite x John Wick and 5 Nights at Freddy’s VR: Assist Wished. “I’ve been in video games and media for a very long time – I helped construct the video games enterprise at Lionsgate with Peter Levin – and after I obtained related to MBC, we have been speaking about what it might imply to construct a video games enterprise for them. What was actually thrilling was, MBC was prepared to take a look at video games as a chance to construct new IP, not as a licensing exercise.”
There’s a motive for that, in line with Mike Sneesby, CEO of father or mother firm MBC Group: Gaming is an international medium in ways in which different narrative varieties can’t obtain.
“MBC Group’s imaginative and prescient is all about taking tales which can be rooted with their hearts within the Arab world, and forging a world footprint for our media firm, and when you concentrate on the traditions of tv and have movies, you may have sure constraints of tradition and language,” he explains. “I feel the unbelievable factor for gaming as a launchpad is that it has its personal international language that transcends tradition and the spoken language. So, the concept which you could take these tales, no matter the place they originate from, for us originating within the Arab world, transcending language limitations and constructing a world platform, I feel that’s an unbelievable start line.”
The give attention to supply materials with a selected geographical origin led to 1,001 Nights – a group of Center Japanese folktales initially compiled within the Islamic Golden Age, related via the framing machine of Scheherazade telling her husband, King Shahryar, tales over numerous years. A number of the tales inside 1,001 Nights are well-known around the globe, with “Aladdin,” “Sinbad the Sailor” and “Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves” being probably the most well-known.
“We felt that if we might faucet right into a deep mythology, it might give us a operating head begin,” Engelhardt says. “We might dive right into a world that has some story and narrative and world constructing, and so we began mythologies around the globe, and we rapidly realized that 1001 Arabian Nights was a very distinctive alternative. It’s globally acknowledged, however we felt that we might carry a very distinctive lens to it by going deep into the unique manuscripts. [1001 Threads of Mizan] is reflective of an unbelievable storytelling custom, an oral storytelling custom, within the area, so we checked out it as not simply 1001 Arabian Nights, however a launching off path to faucet into Arabian mythology extra broadly.”
The crew took its mission critically, instantly bringing historians and lecturers in-house to assist builders totally respect the fabric they have been working with. “These should not consultants, they’re constructed into our crew to actually guarantee that we have been beginning to deeply perceive the spirit of this materials,” per Engelhardt. “We felt that, by taking that strategy, we might carry a novel lens to this materials that felt very acquainted due to the extra Western diversifications which have existed, and produce gamers on a journey that will really feel distinctive and style totally different than what they’ve seen earlier than, each by way of video games, but additionally the ways in which they’ve that they’ve seen this IP mirrored in you already know in different iterations.”
1001 Threads buying and selling playing cards
MBC Group
The work that went into constructing 1001 Threads was by no means supposed to be restricted to a single videogame, Engelhardt reveals. Positive sufficient, the Gamescom unveiling of the property was accompanied by buying and selling playing cards from Higher Deck, and a storybook from Titan Publishing. “As we take into consideration the enterprise that we’re constructing for MBC, reminiscent of the early conversations we had with them, we have a look at what we’re doing as an IP engine for the broader MBC platform,” he says. “The sport have to be nice first, no query; it actually begins with making an awesome sport expertise. However as we’re constructing the sport, we’re very considerate concerning the mythology that we’re constructing, that hopefully it could possibly assist you already know actions exterior of the sport, issues like [partnerships with] Higher Deck and Titan ultimately movie and TV.”
The ambition of that final half is one thing that MBC Group’s Sneesby echoes: “I feel what we’re seeing with the quantity of tv and have movies that’s being created around the globe, more and more you want IP, you want a platform that offers you a head begin. And with out alluding to what the longer term would possibly maintain, I feel this platform has the chance to be a launchpad for different varieties and derivatives of what might come sooner or later. We’re equally enthusiastic about what the longer term holds as we’re excited for the sport itself.”
Within the quick time period, the plan is to take it straightforward for the subsequent few months – “there’s a small indie sport referred to as Grand Theft Auto popping out in November which may take up some consideration,” Englehardt jokes – earlier than selecting the promotion in early 2027 headed in the direction of launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Collection X/S, Nintendo Change 2 and PC.
“In fact, we are able to’t have as massive of a shock as we had at Gamescom,” admits Englehardt, “however we wish to attempt to proceed to shock gamers with extra info and extra thrilling items to the puzzle, and simply proceed to carry them on that journey with us.”