Strategy game company Kixeye opens Australian studio

Newsbrief: Strategy game developer Kixeye has opened a new studio in Brisbane, Australia, with the aim to expand the company's international presence and increase production speeds of its upcoming titles. The new studio is being built around the team at Galactic Trader creator 3 Blokes Studios. Alongside Kixeye's plans to expand its San Francisco headquarters later this year, the company plans to boost its head count by 100 staffers to 300 in total by the end of the year. 3 Blokes was acquired by Zoo World social media company RockYou last year, although Kixeye did not mention RockYou as part of this announcement. Gamasutra has contacted Kixeye to confirm how this new agreement affects RockYou. [Update: Kixeye's Bryan Lam has clarified to Gamasutra, "RockYou wound down the studio in April due to a shift in their business -- to focus on media and 3rd party publishing -- which therefore allowed us to hire everyone on the 3 Blokes team and now open Kixeye Australia."