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World of Tanks developer Wargaming has fronted the cash for a new mobile game studio in Seattle.
According to GamesBeat, the new office doesn’t even have a name yet, but is headed by Z2 founder David Bluhm and, though funded entirely by the Cyprus-based Wargaming, is free to pursue whatever business strategy it deems best.
Bluhm will be joined by Joe McDonagh of Blue Manchu and PopCap, who will lead game production, and Z2 and Nintendo vet Julian Chunovic will head post-production.
This is a separate studio from Wargaming Seattle, and the larger company is just an investor, but Bluhm says part of the reason for the investment is the importance of global marketing and distribution – one of Wargaming’s strong suits – in mobile.
Though World of Tanks has made millions on the PC and is about to appear on the Xbox 360, Wargaming is yet to invade the mobile space, so this new studio is something of a change even if it’s just a second party.
“We think mobile games is still a relatively new space with massive upside,” said Bluhm.
“Mobile is ripe for innovative and new core game mechanics.”
