Broken Sword Is Heading to China via Rokky Publishing Deal

A Classic Adventure Series Finds a New Audience

Revolution Software’s Broken Sword franchise is heading to China, thanks to a new co-publishing agreement with game distributor Rokky. According to GamesIndustry.biz, the deal covers Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars Reforged and the forthcoming remaster of The Smoking Mirror, both of which are planned to launch in the region this year. The titles will be available in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

The remasters are not light touch-ups. As reported by GamesIndustry.biz, they feature redrawn backgrounds, over 30,000 reanimated character sprites, and enhanced audio. That is a significant amount of production work, and it suggests Revolution Software sees real commercial opportunity in the territory rather than just ticking a box.

Revolution founder and creative director Charles Cecil said in a statement that a Chinese fan community has existed around the Broken Sword series for years, and that those players actively pushed the studio to localize and publish officially in the region. He added that during development of the remasters, Revolution invited players from China and around the world to offer feedback, which the team incorporated into the final product.

Rokky Steps Into Publishing for the First Time

For Rokky, the deal represents a meaningful shift. The company has previously distributed PC games for publishers including Sony, Capcom, and Team17, but this is the first time it has taken on a publishing role. According to GamesIndustry.biz, Rokky’s China distribution team will transition into an official publishing unit as part of the arrangement.

Rokky CEO and founder Vadim Andreev acknowledged the difference between the two functions directly. “While we’ve distributed many titles before, from AAA to indie, publishing a game is an entirely different task requiring a different skill set,” he said, as quoted by GamesIndustry.biz. He described the Chinese gaming market as massive and noted that success there requires deep local understanding of player behavior and distribution, knowledge Rokky has built up over years of operating in the region.

Andreev also told GamesIndustry.biz that as Rokky moves into publishing it is “looking forward to learning and continuing to grow in it.” That kind of candor is refreshing from a company stepping into unfamiliar territory, and it squares with the practical responsibilities Rokky is taking on under the agreement: marketing, translation, localization, influencer outreach, and community management.

Why This Deal Makes Sense Now

Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars originally launched in 1996, making it one of the longer-running adventure game franchises still in active development. The series has maintained a dedicated following over the decades, but China has historically been an underserved market for Western point-and-click adventures, largely due to language barriers and limited official distribution infrastructure.

The timing here is deliberate. Rokky has reportedly experienced particularly strong growth in China in recent years, which laid the groundwork for formalizing its operation there as a full publishing unit. Pairing that regional presence with Revolution’s willingness to invest in proper localization, after years of requests from Chinese fans, creates a more credible launch than a simple translation drop would.

It is also worth noting that just last month, Rokky launched an unofficial Steam tool that lets publishers and developers monitor whether distributed Steam keys have actually been used, according to GamesIndustry.biz. That kind of tooling suggests the company is thinking seriously about the infrastructure side of game distribution at scale, which may matter as it navigates the added complexity of publishing in one of the world’s largest gaming markets.

For Revolution Software, the partnership offers a path into a territory the studio has never officially served, backed by a partner with actual on-the-ground experience rather than theoretical regional knowledge.