Former World of WarCraft Staff Found Red 5 Studio

A group of former developers from World of WarCraft, Blizzard Entertainment's best-selling PC MMORPG, have split away to form Califronia-based Red 5 Studios and create their own online game. The founding members of Red 5 are Mark Kern, the former team leader on WoW; William Petras, the former art director; and Taewon Yun, the former operations lead of Blizzard Korea. "Our work on World of WarCraft has really opened up people’s eyes to the potential of online gaming in huge, persistent worlds," said Kern. "We want to continue to shape the future of online gaming by tapping into new worldwide trends and pushing the limits of our creativity." The new studio has set up shop in Aliso Viejo, CA, close to Blizzard South's Irvine offices and in the same city as Blizzard Console (formerly Swingin' Ape Studios), and Red 5 has announced that it is working on a new MMORPG, though no other specifics such as target platform or eventual release date have yet been revealed.