2015 spins off Tornado Studios

Oklahomans are in for a prolonged severe-weather watch, given that 2015 announced today that its newly formed Tornado Studios division would be settling down in Tulsa for the foreseeable future. With the help of "several million" in private financing, 2015 is establishing the Tornado imprint to capitalize on the recent trend of mass-market and casual gaming.

"We're still passionate about action games and shooters, in particular, and will continue to make them under the 2015 label," company founder Tom Kudirka said in a statement. "But the success of Nintendo's latest consoles, and the recent growth of the casual-games market as a whole, has provided an incredible opportunity for us to reach a whole new audience."

Since 1997, 2015 has produced three games, all of them PC first-person shooters. The studio developed the Wages of Sin expansion for Activision's Sin, the critically acclaimed Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and Men of Valor, which also had an Xbox edition.

Majesco will be publishing Tornado Studios' Powerbike for the Nintendo DS this year. Kudirka also told GameSpot the new label is planning to launch a "AAA" game for the Wii in time for Christmas 2009. Kudirka declined to give a release window for the next 2015 project.