Visceral Melbourne dev founds mobile studio
PlaySide to begin production in January 2012
A game designer from EA's recently closed Visceral Melbourne studio has founded a new mobile developer.
According to a report on Kotaku Australia, Gerry Sakkas was offered the chance to relocate to one of EA's studios in the US following the closure of Visceral, but instead chose to start a company with former colleagues Aaron Pasias and Mark Goulopoulos.
PlaySide will begin production on January 16, 2012, with a goal of bringing AAA production values and techniques to the mobile market.
"The goal was to create a studio with people who were accustomed to aiming for AAA quality, take that talent, and tailor it to a mobile audience," says Sakkas, who will serve as CEO of PlaySide.
Sakkas believes that many AAA developers have got the approach to mobile development "terribly wrong" by simply re-packagaing console experiences for mobile gamers.
"We are all about making a completely tailored experience for the mobile platform, with the added quality and polish of a console game. Our biggest goals are to create unique and loveable characters and to make a real impact on the mobile games industry."