Visceral Melbourne vets form mobile dev 'Playside'

by Alexander Sliwinski on Dec 14th 2011 6:45PM

PlaySide is a new mobile-focused Australian studio, founded from the remains of EA's Visceral Melbourne. Former Visceral game designer Gerry Sakkas founded PlaySide with other former staffers of the shuttered studio. PlaySide is looking to begin development of its first game next month.

"We are all about making a completely tailored experience for the mobile platform, with the added quality and polish of a console game," Sakkas told Kotaku AU. "Our biggest goals are to create unique and loveable characters and to make a real impact on the mobile games industry."

Australia's development scene has definitely taken a turn for the small and scrappy, following the closure or severe downsizing of the mega studios. Even massive publishers like EA are focusing on quality mobile development with Australian developers.

Via: Gamasutra
Source: Kotaku AU

Tags: australia, EA, Electronic-Arts, PlaySide, Visceral-Games, Visceral-Melbourne

Reader Comments (3)

It's become quite the cliche for members of a major development studio to branch off on their own and form an upstart company, and they all seem to gravitate towards handhelds and mobile devices.

Is there some unwritten rule that states all independent developers must make their games for mobile devices? What about Xbox Live Arcade, PSN, WiiWare, DSiWare, etc.? Plenty of other alternatives than making cell phone games.

@tendoboy1984 They want to make money and mobile is explosively growing and innovating.

Indies as far as I can tell are making little money on console and finding much greener pastures on mobile and pc. I mean look at how nice Shadow Complex was and it barely broke even while Infinity Blade (from the same guys) made 20 million in like it's first month.

What would you do? Also why do you think anyone would want to seek an alternative? You kind of make is sound like mobile is somehow a lesser option.

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@yomachaser Input-wise it is. Not all touch screen only games work well - mostly because the platforms were not designed for it. The only actual feedback you get is when you tilt or swipe. Making a selection though is not the same compared to a button. That's my only dislike. I like what OnLive wants to do but that HUD is uuuugh... what!?

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