Sleeping Dogs Dev Reveals New Game, It's Not Sleeping Dogs 2

Canadian developer United Front Games, which made Sleeping Dogs and ModNation Racers, today announced its next game. "Smash + Grab" is this game, and it's being referred to as a "hard-hitting" online multiplayer fighting game that represents a "bold new vision" for 3v3 gang warfare.

Smash + Grab is set in a dystopian future where rival gangs duke it out for loot, weapons, and street cred. This plays out in 15-minute matches, where players must collect $50,000 worth of goods from the opposing side. As the match unfolds, you'll sweep through "increasingly larger" stores and can unlock mods to make weapons like a chainsaw shovel or a poison crossbow. There is also a leveling system that lets players unlock more perks and clothing items.

"Smash + Grab combines our love of competitive online games with our expertise in action mechanics and hand-to-hand combat, sharpened during our development of Sleeping Dogs," United Front Games CEO Stephen Van Der Mescht said in a statement. "The playtesting rivalries got pretty intense in the studio during development."

The game will be available on PC from Steam Early Access beginning in September. Though the game will be technically unfinished when it launches, it still constitutes a "fully featured" experience, United Front Games said.

Available to players will be an offline practice mode, as well as two multiplayer modes and maps. Looking forward, the developer said it's at work on new weapons, items, maps, and modes.

Smash + Grab's formula sounds a lot like the Sleeping Dogs spinoff Triad Wars, which was in development at United Front Games before being cancelled in December 2015.

Go to the Smash + Grab website to learn more.