Bungie co-founder Seropian starts up core-focused mobile dev

Bungie co-founder Alex Seropian on Thursday revealed what he's been up to since ditching Disney: a new, core-focused mobile studio. Called Industrial Toys, the developer says it wants to veer away from the "inferior gameplay, graphics, and ... elementary mechanics" that the space is mostly known for, instead promising free-to-play titles with "intricately advanced layers of narrative and gameplay." Seropian worked on a number of core games after co-founding Bungie in 1991 and serving as CEO for some time, shipping titles from the Marathon and Halo series. He helped negotiate the company's acquisition by Microsoft in 2000 before leaving a couple of years later. He went on to set up and head Wideload Games, which released titles like Stubbs the Zombie and Hail to the Chimp. Disney Interactive Studios acquired the group, and he led the core games team there before taking on the role of CEO at Industrial Toys. While at Disney, he was charged with turning around the company's struggling games business, and helped shift its focus from traditional console development to social games. When Seropian left earlier this month, he was replaced by Bill Roper, who previously held key positions at Blizzard North, Flagship Studios, and Cryptic Studios. Seropian is joined by CTO Brent Pease, also a veteran from Bungie and most recently senior R&D Manager at DreamWorks Animation; and by president Tim Harris, who previously headed Seven Lights, developer of online strategy game The Continuum. "We believe in the future of mobile," reads a statement posted on the company's Facebook page. "We are driven to innovate beyond industry standards and trust in these inherent truths: that the future of gaming is about being accessible without sacrificing quality."