Timi Studios, the Tencent-owned developer that's worked on games like Call of Duty: Mobile and Honor of Kings, has opened a new studio in Washington to create triple-A titles.
As reported by GamesBeat, Timi Seattle is based in Bellevue, Washington, and has already expanded to 25 employees.
The whole team is currently working remotely due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, although the office itself is being prepped for when they're allowed to return and will apparently feature "a high-end playtest lab" to ensure staff can "consistently leverage" player feedback.
The fledgling outfit is being overseen by veteran developers Scott Warner and Rosi Zagortcheva, and is already working on a competitive first-person shooter for PC and console platforms.
"We’re working on a first-person shooter, competitive game, live service, with a lot of people assembled who have made those games for quite some time," explained Warner, who previously worked as a game director at Ubisoft and Electronic Arts, and also had a spell at Oculus as a design lead.
"[This role] was attractive to me in the same way that it has been for a lot of our team members and that a lot of people in triple-A are now in these mega-franchises that really can’t do original titles. They’re kind of risk averse. And so the teams kind of have two choices either go independent on a smaller scale or they continue to work on sequel after sequel."
Zagortcheva, who's spent the last decade making shooters and most recently served as the head of development and operations at Battlefield developer DICE, explained the prospect of building a new franchise from the ground up was too good to miss.
"What attracted me was new IP and the triple-A scale," they said. "That’s a rare opportunity in the industry. And possibly what I’m even more excited about is this chance to do everything right, to create a studio to create a culture, to form a team with no baggage -- a clean slate to create something amazing."
Curiously, Timi Seattle has emerged from the shadows just over a month after Timi formed a 'strategic partnership' with Microsoft to create new game content.