Former Blizzard, SOE, Relic devs form AAA online game company

Former executives hailing from Blizzard, Sony Online and Relic Entertainment have announced the formation of a new San Diego-based studio, online game developer and publisher Molten Games.

Molten Games' first title will be a AAA online game, made possible by a multi-million dollar investment from Korean video game development company NCSoft during the company's Series A funding round.

The new studio's mission statement is to focus on "breaking free from the traditional developer/publisher relationship" and emphasize gameplay development "first and foremost." The studio is looking to build the team for its first game, and is currently in the market for VFX, UI and concept artists as well as a technical director. The company also lists open positions for gameplay and tools engineers, as well as someone who has experience working with Unreal Engine 3 and 4.

"Molten Games has assembled a wildly talented and experienced team, and we absolutely believe they will create and run an amazing new game experience," said NCSoft CEO Taek Jin Kim in a press statement. "They're setting the bar high for themselves, with a strong desire to shake up the online gaming space by creating something new and unique in our industry."

"We created Molten Games in order to truly have control over our game development and IP, and we're going to create something epic," said Molten Games CEO and co-founder of Jungwon Hahn. "Our team understands not only the creation of online games, but the ongoing management of them, better than anyone else in the industry. As we continue to build our team and work on our initial product, gameplay and player experience is going to come first with every decision."

Molten Games promised more details on its debut title will come at a later date.