NCsoft Reveals New Studio, Promises to 'Break New Ground' in MMOs

MMO publisher and developer NCsoft has officially unveiled Carbine Studios, the company's latest addition to its stable of development teams. Initially founded in 2005 and located in Aliso Viejo, CA, Carbine is working on an unnanounced MMO it vows will "break new ground in massively multiplayer gaming." In addition to publishing Cryptic Studios' super-powered PC MMO City of Heroes, NCsoft is known in the MMO community for the Guild Wars series developed by its ArenaNet subsidiary and the internally developed Lineage franchise, which has proven to be a massive success in Korea. It recently partnered with Sony to bring titles to PlayStation 3 and PSP. Among the new studio's staff are a number of industry veterans, with World of Warcraft lead developer and Carbine co-founder Kevin Beardlsee serving as the company's vice president of design. Other notable talent at the studio include 16 other ex-Blizzard employees, Tim Cain--co-founder of Vampire: The Masquerade--Bloodlines (PC) developer Troika Games and former producer, lead programmer, and designer on Black Isle's cult classic PC RPG Fallout--and Jeffery Gaffney, who co-founded Lord of the Rings Online (PC) developer Turbine, Inc. and worked on City of Heroes as executive producer. Cain acts as Carbine's programming director, Gaffney is the company's executive producer. "This is a dev team made in heaven," flaunted NCsoft North American business CEO and Origin Systems co-founder Robert Garriott. "This group is as experienced as they come in the area of computer role playing and multiplayer game design. Making successful games is second nature to them. They are a very welcome addition to the NCsoft family. The gaming community should be excited to see what great things come out of Carbine Studios in the coming years."