Remedy Vets Establish New Studio

The former head of Remedy Entertainment has announced the formation of a new design studio in Helsinki, Finland called Recoil Games, and whose first title is apparently a "large scale action game inspired by classic disaster movies." Recoil Games is founded and headed by Samuli Syvähuoko, former co-founder and managing director of Remedy Entertainment, creators of the Max Payne series. Syvähuoko was also involved in the creation of benchmarking company Futuremark and 3D mobile phone company Fathammer. The studio’s other founders include technology director Jarkko Lempiäinen, level design director Samuli Viikinen, design director Aki Määttä, art director Mikko Kautto, senior game designer Petteri Putkonen and lead concept artist Hans Zenjuga. The founding team members have an average of ten years of experience in the games industry, with tenures at companies including Bugbear, Codemasters, Electronic Arts, Fathammer, Guerrilla Games, Housemarque, Remedy Entertainment, Treyarch and Ubisoft. The company currently employs twenty game development staff, with current recruiting aimed at increasing this figure to fifty. Recoil Game’s first project is based on an original intellectual property, and uses a combination of in-house technology and licensed third party tools. The first title is currently aimed at the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC formats. "The gaming industry is growing rapidly, and Finland has a strong cluster of expertise in the field. Founding a new development studio with a team of industry veterans is an exciting opportunity that has quickly attracted the attention of international game production companies and investors," said Syvähuoko. "Our long-term goal is to become a world-class game development company by building original IP game franchises that will reach hit status worldwide."