Zynga Opens New Studio to Work on Star Wars Game

Interactive entertainment company Zynga today announced that it is opening a new game development studio in its Austin, Texas office to work on an upcoming "premiere mobile game" in the Star Wars universe. More specifically, the new studio will partner together with NaturalMotion, an existing Zynga subsidiary, on the development of the video game. The new studio is led by Jeff Hickman and Matthew Hemby.

In case you missed it, a couple of years back, NaturalMotion took over the since-shuttered free-to-play title Star Wars: Commander from Disney with the announcement that it would also be working on an all-new mobile game for the franchise. No new Star Wars title has materialized since then, and it is somewhat unclear if this is still the same game being worked on now, but the opening of a new studio to support the development likely bodes well for whatever future prospects.

"Star Wars is one of the most iconic franchises in the world and has engaged generations of fans for decades. As game makers and moviegoers, we're huge fans of Star Wars and are excited to create new experiences for players that bring this beloved brand to life," Frank Gibeau, Zynga CEO, said at the time. "We look forward to extending the reach of the Star Wars universe and developing a new mobile game that entertains players for years to come and has the potential to be a future forever franchise for Zynga."

No further details are known about whatever Star Wars mobile game Zynga is developing at the moment. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the Star Wars franchise right here.

What do you think of Zynga opening up a new game development studio to develop a new Star Wars video game? Are you interested to see what the company cooks up? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop to talk about all things gaming!