Nov 25, 2016

The French feature "Dofus-Book1: Julith" will go straight to Steam in the US.

Ankama, the French entertainment company best known for its MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games), has released its first feature film, Dofus-Book 1: Julith, in the United States onto the Steam game distribution platform. The film was released theatrically in France last February.

Produced by Ankama Animations in co-production with France 3 Cinema, the film is based on the company's Dofus MMORPG, which was also released this month on Steam for English-speaking audiences in the United States and Canada. The game, originally released in 2004, currently has over 2.5 million active players worldwide.

Here is the trailer for the feature directed by Anthony Roux and Jean-Jacques Denis:

The theatrical Dofus is deeply rooted in the mythology of the game universe, and though it can be understood by all audiences, will likely have more appeal to those who are already familiar with the game's characters and universe. This is the official synopsis of the film:

The concept of using Steam as an animation distribution platform will take time to establish but it holds great promise, opening up the platform's pop culture-savvy user base of over 125 million people to animated films that would otherwise not find wide distribution in the U.S.

Dofus is not the first animated feature to be released on Steam. Game maker Valve, which owns Steams, started making films available on the platform in 2015, and while the majority of those titles have been live-action to date, that has been changing recently, with some anime titles added, as well as the 2012 Korean CG feature Padak.

Dofus-Book 1: Julith can currently be rented or purchased on the Steam web site.