Red 5 Studio sets up Asia branch

PC gamers may recall a California-based developer named Red 5 Studio, which was started up by former employees of Blizzard Entertainment. Gamers may also recall that a team-based free-to-play first-person shooter called Firefall is in the works from the company. Chinese game developer and operating company The9, which acquired majority shares of the studio in 2010, recently announced that they have established a new Asian branch for the developer.

The new offshoot will be based in Singapore and will handle Firefall game operations and R&D activity for the region, according to Tony Park, vice president of Red 5 Singapore. The studio will also develop localized versions of the upcoming shooter.

Zhu Jun, the CEO of The9 Limited and Red 5 Singapore, said that the company decided to set up shop specifically in Singapore because of the country's location, strong support from the government, and the latest technology in game development. Another reason was that games in the shooter genre took up 17 percent of the global market based on recent statistics the company formulated, with sports being the highest at 31 percent. Red 5 Singapore is also currently recruiting game designers and artists.

The game will officially be out for the public to download this December. For more information, check out the recent videos on GameSpot.