The Game Awards 2018 presentation introduced an enticing project from a young, small developer with triple-A roots. Scavengers is a new IP from Midwinter Entertainment, a studio comprised of roughly 20 developers headed by ex-343 Industries lead Josh Holmes, who helped design Halo 5's Warzone mode.

The studio's very first game is an ambitious futuristic survival shooter based in the "not-so-distant" future, pitting teams of players against the threat of a hostile natural environment and inhabitants, limited resources, and opposing players.

Branded a "co-opetition" title by its developers, Scavengers will see teams of players fight for survival against other teams hoping to achieve the same objective. The debut trailer revealed at tonight's Game Awards shows humans desperately escaping a disastrous situation in space only to emerge from their escape pods in a frigid wasteland on Earth. The team of four immediately equip their rifles and explore, soon arriving at a mysterious crash site in the middle of a large crater.

Scavengers takes inspiration from Halo 5's Warzone mode, blending elements of co-operative and competitive gameplay in an open world setting with heavy survival elements.

The title's realistic, detailed environments are rendered in Unreal Engine 4, powered by Improbable’s SpatialOS platform. The project was first announced earlier this year, when its unique blend of co-op and competitive gameplay was announced as an experiment to see how players interact with each other in a more ambiguous social structure.

Speaking at the Game Awards, the developer emphasized the value of community feedback, urging players to try out the game prior to its release. The open-world survival, co-op/competitive title is slated for release next year, but players can sign up to test the game for free right now. No exact date has been set for early access nor the title's full release.

Scavengers is set to release some time in 2019.