New MMO studio established by genre veterans

A new development studio which will specialise in producing MMO games has been set up by a team of 10 designers with extensive experience of working in the genre.

The staff at Colony Studios have worked on titles such as World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot and Everquest, plus City of Heroes, Lord of the Rings Online and Ultima Online.

The company is headed up by Michael Wallis, formerly a senior producer on Eve Online. "Our collective contributions to a significant number of hit MMOs give us a strong advantage," he said.

"Most dev teams - including Colonyâs - have gone through the process of learning what doesnât work in game development, but our team members have also been intimately involved with creating what does work in several successful MMOs and that combination will serve us well.

"The bottom line is we've launched MMOs before, and our experience lets us anticipate bumps in the road and steer clear of them. The fact that we've been through it before means things are much less likely to fall through the cracks."

A statement from Colony said the studio plans to "breathe new life into what is often described as a somewhat stagnant increasingly generic genre". The company's first project will be based on original intellectual property and will feature "a dynamic, living world which won't be developed as a 'safe' MMO, meaning it won't be a World of Warcraft clone with a new IP skin".

"Our MMO, which will offer far more than a linear storyline, will provide a ton of history and backstory, but the players will consistently influence the content," Wallis added.

Colony Studios' first game is due out in late 2009.