Former Visceral Melbourne Staffers Establish Mobile Games Studio

In the wake of the Visceral Melbourne closure, a group of former staffers has formed a new Australian studio with a focus on mobile games. PlaySide has been founded by developers from EA's defunct Melbourne studio, which contributed to the development of the Dead Space series. Originally a game designer at Visceral, Gerry Sakkas founded PlaySide along with other former staffers, and is now the company's CEO. PlaySide is looking to begin development of its first game next month. "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," said Sakkas, as reported by Kotaku. The studio is looking to develop for a variety of mobile platforms. "The mobile space has always been a love of mine and, although some studios are doing it right, there are many that have got it terribly wrong," Sakkas explained. "Some of the larger studios have simply taken their hit titles and slapped them onto a mobile platform, however this is not what mobile consumers want and it is the complete opposite of what we are setting out to do."