Harvest Moon house Marvelous enlists U.S. startup for social game expansion

Newsbrief: A newly-formed free-to-play studio, made up of former key staffers from big name companies such as Electronic Arts and Sony Computer Entertainment, is being funded by Japanese developer and publisher Marvelous as part of its international business strategy aimed at the rapid growth of social games. The Costa Mesa, California-based Checkpoint Studios is headed by Brian Wiklem, who previously held producer roles at SCE, EA, Shiny Entertainment and Heavy Iron Studios. The studio is looking to develop cross-platform social games, and will release its first game AviNation next month via Facebook. Checkpoint plans to then expand the aviation title, built using the Unity 3D engine and the studio's own Boomerang technology, to smartphones and tablets later this year.