Mobile studio Motiga jumps on the F2P PC bandwagon with new MOBA

Mobile game company Motiga announced that it has taken funding from folks like NetEase and SmileGate to develop Gigantic, a free-to-play multiplayer PC action game inspired by MOBA design. You may remember Motiga as the Bellevue, WA-based startup founded by two online gaming execs back in 2010 to develop, publish, and provide cloud-based server technology for real-time multiplayer mobile games. Cofounder (and former NCSoft West CEO) Chris Chung later told Gamasutra that he helped launch the studio because he "saw an opportunity to create a company focused on multiplayer games on mobile," but after releasing The LeftOvers on iOS in late 2011 the studio seemingly went dark. Now the company has confirmed that it shifted focus to begin designing a free-to-play multiplayer game for PC in 2012. That game is Gigantic, a five-on-five action game with AI guardians that is expected to launch in 2015 and takes its design inspiration from popular MOBAs like League of Legends and Dota 2. Gigantic frontman (and Motiga VP of product development) James Phinney has some experience developing multiplayer PC games, having previously worked at studios like Blizzard and NCSoft with producer and designer credits on games like StarCraft and Guild Wars.