Zynga has announced that it is opening a brand-new game development studio based out of its Austin, Texas office to work on a “premiere mobile game set in the Star Wars universe.”This new studio will be led by industry veterans Jeff Hickman and Matthew Hemby, and its primary focus will be partnering with NaturalMotion, a Zynga-subsidiary, to develop this new mobile title. It is also looking to hire 25 new employees to help bring this vision to life for such positions as Lead Engineer, Design Director, and Lead Level Designer.
“As a longtime Austinite, I know firsthand the immense level of talent and creativity that resides in this beautiful city,” said Jeff Hickman, Senior Vice President, Games. “We believe that the Austin talent market is highly compatible with our mission of bringing AAA console visuals and deep, compelling gameplay to mobile platforms.”
While EA may still hold an exclusive licensing agreement with Disney to “develop and publish new Star Wars titles for a core gaming audience,” Disney does still retain “certain rights to develop new titles within the mobile, social, tablet and online game categories.”That doesn’t mean that EA hasn’t dipped its hand into the mobile market, however, as Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is one of the most popular Star Wars games on iOS and Android and is still supported to this day.
While we wait for the reveal of where this new game will take us in that galaxy far, far away, be sure to check out our review of the latest Star Wars game to be released – Star Wars: Squadrons.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
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