Star Wars: Zynga is working on a new game for the franchise

US-based social video games maker Zynga has just made a new announcement regarding its future. As part of the announcement, the company noted that it is opening up a new game development studio. This new game studio will be based out of its Austin, Texas office. The company also noted that this new game development studio will work on a new Star Wars game. Zynga noted that this new game will be “set in the Star Wars universe”, and target smartphones. Let’s check out more details around the latest Zynga announcement and its new Star Wars game here.

Zynga announces a new Star Wars game, details

According to a report from VentureBeat, the company will partner with NaturalMotion for the game. The new game development studio will be led by industry veterans Matthew Hemby, and Jeff Hickman. We also got to know that the company is currently looking to hire twenty-five people “across every role”. As part of the hiring drive, the company is looking to recruit studio-level leadership. Hickman shared details around the announcement stating that the company wants to tap into the “awesome” talent in the city. He believes that Austin has the best talent to craft AAA-console games. Before Zynga, Hickman was with Electronic Arts in its EA Mythic division and the BioWare division. Such talent is essential for mobile games now as smartphones are becoming more and more powerful. The report also likely hinted that the game may feature “console-like and PC-like” graphics.

Zynga is currently looking for titles such as lead engineer, design director, and lead level designer for its new studio. In addition, this studio will also work with BossAlien, a division of Natural Motion for the development. The report also noted that a Star Wars game is a different, and new direction for Zynga. For context, it has focused on casual games like FarmVille and Words With Friends with social features in the past.

It is also worth noting that the company is also responsible for CSR racing game after its acquisition of NaturalMotion. More recently, Zynga acquired Rollic, a hyper-casual game developer to diversify its portfolio. In between, the company also acquired Small Giant Games, Gram Games, and Peak Games.