SoftBank Ventures Korea has invested in Turbo, a New York City studio led by Yohei Ishii, a veteran of CCP and Square Enix.
Rather than the causal players usually courted by mobile developers, the studio plans to make mobile games for a hardcore audience, Ishii
tells Polygon: Turbo is "focusing on creating AAA quality games tailored to the pursuits and expectations of the core gamer, a community that hasn't really been properly embraced in mobile."
The studio has also picked up developers of pedigree, including OMGPOP (
Draw Something), Riot (
League of Legends), Next Level Games (
Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon), and Q Entertainment (
Lumines Electronic Symphony).
“We’re working with Turbo because they have the seasoned background and visionary ideas to reinvent how games are played," said Daniel Kang at SoftBank Ventures Korea in a statement. Kang also pointed out SoftBank's significant successes in the space -- it bankrolls GungHo Online Entertainment (
Puzzle & Dragons) and last year
purchased a majority stake in Supercell (
Clash of Clans) alongside GungHo.
The amount of SoftBank's investment was not disclosed.
