Former EA Employees Launch New Studio, PlaySide

Gerry Sakkas formerly of EA’s Visceral Games Studio, has taken a bold leap to form mobile games studio PlaySide.

Following the culling of the EA Melbourne studio where he had been a Game Designer, Sakkas was faced with a decision to either relocate to America and continue working for EA or another large player in the games industry, or create a brand new niche Australian studio. Sakkas chose the latter option, contacted some of his former colleagues from Visceral and got to work.

Armed with the knowledge of what it took to make a great game, some financial backing and a dream, Sakkas started PlaySide Studios.

"The goal was to create a studio of people who were accustomed to aiming for AAA quality, take that talent, and tailor it to a mobile audience. We believe our studio has something really special in the sense that we can create quality assets, characters, design and stories for any platform" says Sakkas, CEO of PlaySide.

He adds that "The mobile space has always been a love of mine and, although some studios are doing it right, there are many that have got it terribly wrong. Some of the larger studios have simply taken their hit titles and slapped them onto a mobile platform, however this is not what mobile consumers want and it is the complete opposite of what we are setting out to do.

We are all about making a completely tailored experience for the mobile platform, with the added quality and polish of a console game. Our biggest goals are to create unique and loveable characters and to make a real impact on the mobile games industry. We will of course keep our community up to date with our craziness through social media and our Facebook page"

You can checkout Playside on Faceook at www.facebook.com/playsidestudios for info and careers.

PlaySide will open and start production on a brand new title for mobile devices on January 16th 2012. "The Studio is ready to go but i think the old EA staff deserve a well earned Christmas break first!" explains Sakkas.