THQ Vet Launches Mamba Games, Plans Flight Sim Expansions

Startup publisher Mamba Games today announced both its own existence as well as its first four game projects across PC and console platforms. The company, co-founded by former THQ executive Robert Nielson in November 2008, laid out its release schedule for the first two quarter of 2009, signing various worldwide and territory-specific distribution deals. Interestingly, amongst the company's revealed products are the global rights to six third-party Microsoft Flight Simulator X add-ons to be released over a two-year period. This comes less than a week after news that Microsoft effectively dissolved ACES Studio, the development team responsible for the Flight Simulator series. The first of these third-party expansions is developer RealFlight's Grumman F6F Hellcat, which is slated for March 27. The Lost Crown: A Ghost-hunting Adventure, also a PC release, is scheduled to ship on March 27. Mamba will give the Darkling Room-developed horror title, from veteran independent adventure game creator Jonathan Boakes (Dark Fall), a "global" release (with the exception of North America, the United Kingdom, and the Commonwealth of Independent States). Pyroblazer, a combat racing PC game from Serbian developer Eipix, will ship in Germany, Australia, and Switzerland on March 27 as well. Mamba's fourth announced title, Matchman (pictured) by Chinese developer TF-H Co Ltd, will debut for the Nintendo DS globally in the second quarter of 2009. Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 versions of the scrolling shooter will be released later in the year. "Due to the difficult economical situation at present throughout the world, we have had to carefully asses each project and the risk margins in significant detail, but we are delighted to have such a strong portfolio for the first 2 quarters of 2009," said Neilson in a statement, adding that The Lost Crown and Matchman have received positive reactions from the press.