ArenaNet co-founder Jeff Strain opens new studio

Fantastic news! I'm glad he's not out of the gaming business; he's the kind of dev you wish there were more of: honest, passionate and a brilliant manager. And by dev, I mean someone you'd want to work for. Also: zombies? lock and load!

This guy has some brains on him, will look forward to this.

Was sort of hoping to see Jeff open up his own game publishing company so he can buy ArenaNet back from NCSoft. Though this seems very interesting.

Personally, I find the news disappointing. Another great game developer is moving from PC to consoles... Still, I wish him all the success in the world.

Consoles... blech.

Nice start with the Q&A post.

Liked the answer about subscription vs RMT-focused game design. Big believer of the pros and cons of each model, and your game has to fit. Nice to see he has a good handle on that.

Cool concept, but, he lost me at console MMO. Oh well.

This will no doubt be a great game because zombie consoles are the scariest thing ever.

It sounds like they are on the right track. Here are a few interesting bits I found from the interviews and such...

"Zombies are fun because they give us an excuse to break all the rules, without guilt. I’m not just talking about over-the-top violence — we’ve got aliens, terrorists, and robots to fulfill those needs"

"The game will almost certainly be subscription based."

"same-screen cooperative play"

Will have fast and slow zombies.

"Strain says that it will work in a different way than you're use to, with more quick action for shorter bursts, and far more survival elements than a traditional MMO. Undead Lab's zombie game will feature far more focus on how characters develop over time through the choices they make, instead of simply leveling up mathematically."

"One of the very first goals is going to be to get together with other players and establish a place that you can call your own that you must actively maintain and defend"

"It is important to state that this is not a horror game. You have to have a purpose and you have to believe you're trying to survive for a reason and that is why you have a safe base."

Another interview implies that it won't be a "classic zombie corridor shooter". :)

"it is going to be an M-rated game"

"this isn't something you're going to see next Christmas or the Christmas after"

Eff consoles.....they're toys with 4 year old technology, heck my netbook is more powerful then a 360.

Almost 1 out of 2-3 homes in the US has a pc, so there is your built-in audience. The pc gaming market should not be shrinking, every year Microsoft re-commits to pc gaming with some new initiative then fizzles out.

Developers go after consoles because it is low hanging fruit; console owners have a black box and unless they have games to play on it it collects dust. The strength of the console is its weakness; proprietary.

console MMO? Pass. Besides, how many different zombies can you kill in an MMO before your ready to pull your eyes out in boredom?

Sounds awesome and he comes across as very likable in an honest way.

On the other hand I'm really not a fan of subscription model elitists. You wanna know what's REALLY fun, Jeff? Not paying 180 bucks a year to play a game.

Whatever. I hope he doesn't start a trend of MMOs migrating to consoles, as just about everything else. Of all the people to do that, please, not him. For entirely selfish reasons, i am going to wish his dream of taking the industry in another direction, which is apparently consoles, fails, because MMOs have come to become one of the last staples of PC gaming. And now this. Don't do this to me. :(

Sorry. I stopped reading after consoles.

I have a lot of admiration for Strain, but this particular game he's developing now sounds just awful for quite a number of reasons. Fortunately, there are many other good games in the pipeline from other developers