Zombot Studio aims to make console-quality games for smartphones and tablets

Lots of startups say they want to make console-quality mobile games. But Zombot Studio is announcing its Project Galaxy game today with some eye-catching scenes that the company says it can reproduce on mobile devices.

The new San Francisco company is made up of former game designers from companies such as Bungie (the folks who made the first Halo games), Rockstar (Grand Theft Auto), 2K Games, and Kabam. Their goal is to bridge the gap between console and mobile games, which still struggle to make experiences of the same ambition and scope as what many play in their living rooms.

While the graphics the company is releasing look impressive, there’s no telling what the actual product will look like. But Project Galaxy, the company’s first sci-fi game, will be due out in early summer. The playable demo will be ready at the Game Developers Conference next week.

“You can’t just cram a console game into a mobile device,” said CEO Ben Berens. “Creative innovation in design is required to successfully merge the two together. We’ve built a team with the skills and experience necessary to successfully bring a 3D console experience to mobile devices while taking advantage of the unique functions and mechanics of the platform.”

“Gamers demand quality, so that’s a major focus for the studio,” added chief creative officer Alex Chu. “Quality is evident not only in the product art and game design, but in our day-to-day operation decisions as well. This pervasive focus on excellence really shows through in our first game.”

The studio has nine employees and opened in June. Chu and Berens left Kabam last year with the aim of focusing on better quality games. The team is using the Unity 3D game engine to make titles for all major platforms.

The investors haven’t been disclosed yet, but they are from both Asia and Europe. Berens worked on games such as Kabam’s The Godfather: Five Families, while Chu worked on Halo: Reach, the sci-fi survival-horror game Dead Space, and Bungie’s upcoming sci-fi shooter, Destiny, it’s first new franchise after Halo.

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