Machine Zone has a new studio running a F2P game fronted by Schwarzenegger

Game of War: Fire Age developer Machine Zone has opened Epic War, a new studio dedicated to developing and maintaining its new free-to-play mobile game Mobile Strike, which launched globally today with celebrity frontman Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The fact that Machine Zone is launching a second mobile F2P multiplayer military game is notable in light of the fact that Game of War: Fire Age's ongoing popularity (it's a mainstay in mobile top earner charts) is effectively solely responsible for Machine Zone's success.

Machine Zone was seemingly less than keen to put its brand on Mobile Strike, and only admitted that Epic War was in fact a new Machine Zone studio when questioned by GamesBeat.

It's unclear how long the studio has been operating or how large it is, though Mobile Strike has been available in select territories for some time and only this week saw a global launch -- the first Machine Zone game to see a global launch since Game of War.

"The new studio will allow us to maintain the existing, dedicated resources to Game of War," Machine Zone CEO Gabe Leydon stated to GamesBeat. "In fact, we intend to grow the GOW-focused engineering and customer service teams."

The company is currently estimated to employ well over 500 people around the world, and recently resolved a trade secret lawsuit with competitor Kabam.