Sacred 3 is a hack and slash brawler named as the third full game in the Sacred video game series, despite notable differences in both gameplay and design. Deep Silver, which acquired the license to Sacred 3 from former development studio Ascaron Entertainment, announced at Gamescom that the earliest it could publish the game would be in early 2012.[2] The game was finally released on August 1, 2014, among negative reviews and cold reception by the fans of the previous games in the franchise, because of the change in genre and alleged shallow gameplay.