EndWar, Splinter Cell Staff Form French Mobile Studio

Two former Ubisoft staffers who have worked on franchises including Tom Clancy's EndWar and Splinter Cell Double Agent have formed a new French mobile dev studio, The Game Bakers. The studio comes from ex-Ubisoft developers Audrey Leprince and Emeric Thoa, and is one of the latest examples of a trend that sees workers leaving larger companies to strike out on their own to chase digital opportunities. Leprince's credits include producer on Endwar at Ubisoft Shanghai, while Thoa was a senior game designer on Double Agent, among other credits. The new studio, based in Paris and Montpellier, France, intends to create "triple-A quality games for mobile platforms." A statement added that the founders "will focus on smaller scale, more agile creative projects that will take advantage of the opportunities afforded by touch devices and the exploding mobile market." Other "senior developers and talents" are working with the studio from both the video game and comic book industries. The Game Bakers' current title is Squids for mobile, PC and Mac, due in fall this year.