The Very Strange Case of Kuma Games

Back around '08-'09, there was a studio called Kuma Reality Games, commonly shortened to Kuma Games.

The site was primarily focused around Kuma War, a Source FPS that took real battles only a few days after they happened and put them up in the game. Their work ended up getting the attention of Discover Communications, and they made games for various channels in the network that coincided with television series that went were going on on the channel. Kuma Game's big break was one of these games, and the way I ended up finding them -- Dogfights, a game made for the History Channel show of the same name; both of which were actively advertised.

However, by 2010, Kuma Games vanished.

The website stopped updating. Games stopped getting patched. Kuma War stopped getting weekly releases. Slowly, servers began to empty out. A game that once held hundreds, now only had 1-3 servers.

A glancing thought from a passerby would probably assume that the studio had shut down sometime in 2010, and its audience left with them. However, it only takes a small bit of research to know that that's oh so wrong.

So, what the hell happened? What's with all these cryptic messages on their Facebook and Twitter? Is Kuma Games really still together, or did they get hacked?

Another question that comes into play is why the servers of the website and the game client are still up. Someone is paying for it -- but who? WHO is Kuma Games? Am I Kuma Games? Are you Kuma Games? Are we all Kuma Games? 

But don't worry, thinks get weirder. Way fucking weirder.

It is December, 2011. On an Iranian state television channel, a man by the name of Amir Mirza Hekmati got on stage as a public confession that he had been working with the US government to spy in the Middle East. Most of what he had to say wasn't incredibly important, but one quote did stick out from the rest:

"After working for DARPA, I went to Kuma Games Company. This computer company was receiving money from the CIA to produce and design and distribute for free special movies and games with the aim of manipulating public opinion in the Middle East. The goal of the company in question was to convince the people of Iran and the people of the entire world that whatever the U.S. does in other countries is a good measure."

Kuma Games declined to comment.

It did explain a lot, however: it explains how they were able to have such precise details on battles so close to the date of happening, as well as how the last two games that the developer released were from community members living in the Middle East. But that still leaves one question -- what happened to Kuma Games?

On March 20th, 2015, a few weeks after the start of making this article, the Kuma Games facebook updated with this message:

Wait, what? What's Infinite Overdrive? What's Kuma\TV?

Searching either of these shows Kuma Games newest project, Kuma\TV.

As it turns out, the studio never really left, but rather went through some major rebranding. Certainly what a way to advertise your product, Kuma. 

So whatever might be the truth of what the Iranian spy said, or why their social marketing is a little crazy, or if they're even legally allowed to say that they're working with Discover Communications still, one thing's for sure: Kuma War was Counter-Strike for poor people.

Citations:

Kuma Games Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KumaGames

Kuma Games Twitter: https://twitter.com/kumagames

Kuma TV: http://www.kumatv.com/index.php

Alleged Iranian Spy 'Confesses' that U.S. Video Game Company is CIA Propoganda Tool:

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